Holiday in Crete
by Atana
Summary: The sequel to "Lady of Slytherin". Will Severus Snape regret chaperoning a student trip to Crete?
1. Default Chapter

HOLIDAY IN CRETE  
  
A Snips and Spirals Fanfic  
Sequel to "The Lady of Slytherin"  
Both written by Lady Tesser  
Illustrated by Atana (see URL on her bio page)  
***********************  
  
DISCLAIMERS:  
J.K. Rowling owns all Harry Potter characters and references.  
Britomartis Vox belongs to Atana and myself.  
Crete is a UN military base at this time.  
No, Bull Leaping is no longer done.  
'I'm Too Sexy' lyrics by Right Said Fred.  
'Lime and Coconut' lyrics by Henry Nilsson.  
And special thanks to Trapezoid for creating 'Potter Puppet Pals' and changing the face of animated guerilla puppet-theatre forever (or at least  
bringing it down to a whole new level of perversity).  
  
**********************  
  
Chapter 1 - Final Examinations and the Hunk of Hogwarts  
  
Severus Snape, Master of Slytherin House and Potions Master, snapped his eyes open in the darkness of his room. He stretched a little, sat up on the edge of his bed, and stretched again, running one hand through his chin- length black hair.  
  
Damn. Needed another shower. Students whispered he never took showers, which was a complete and utter lie. He showered twice a day, in fact, enough for Britomartis to comment that he smelled like soap and potions.  
  
But frequent showers did not stop his oily hair from trying to take over his life. He suspected some subtle curse, but had no evidence.  
  
Severus got up and pulled the drapes from his window, the light streaming pools of color over the wall and floor from the stained glass window. Normally he would have shut the drapes again, but he was beginning to find a fondness for sunlight, even if it was wizard-made.  
  
Damn. Weird.  
  
Two weeks until school was out. Final exams to make, classroom to clean up, office to be organized.  
  
And Summer Break.  
  
Severus pulled his gray nightshirt off and swore in a colorful manner as he picked up a towel and entered the private bath.  
  
How the hell did his Martis talk him into chaperoning a field trip to Crete during Summer Break? He usually spent the summers in the heart of the dungeons and doing study plans for the next year, working out potions for his classes, or even just sleeping for eighteen hours straight ... or staying awake for three days at a time.  
  
Because she was going to be there.  
  
"Congratulations, Martis," he snorted as he twisted the water facet on. "I'll follow you to the ends of the Earth."  
  
He laughed. It felt good. Scary, but good.  
  
He stepped into the shower, knowing he now had to be especially frightening in classes today.  
  
* * *  
  
"WHO THE AVERNUS SUMMONED THE DEMON?!?!"  
  
The yell came at the same time as Professor Britomartis Vox slammed the door to the classroom open, making the Fifth-Year students nearly jump out of their skins.  
  
George and Fred Weasley really were innocent. This time. They proclaimed it long and loudly.  
  
The demon followed her in as she stalked to her desk and sat down.  
  
The demon looked rather silly as far as demons went - he was extremely short and pudgy with big buck teeth, floppy black ears, a stumpy tail with an arrow point, and dressed in a sash of garishly-printed material with bright and obnoxious colors. The fact he was carrying around a rather large butcher knife did not seem to make him any more frightening.  
  
The demon stopped, looked around the classroom, and then hopped up on the desk of the nearest girl. "You're cute - will you marry me?"  
  
The girl bared her teeth and automatically swatted him off her desk, sending him flying across the room and into the lap of another girl. "You don't have to marry me," he continued in a voice fit more for a salesman with asthma than a demon. "A civil arrangement will work."  
  
"EW!" She shoved him into her seat partner's lap.  
  
"We can just skip to the honeymoon!" he told the next one.  
  
"EEK!" This one managed to drop-kick him in her panic.  
  
Britomartis lay her head down on her desk, Snookie-poo – her snake familiar - sliding down her shoulders and onto the top, curling around a very large sphere of goldstone sitting on the surface. "Whomever can get rid of it, I'll offer fifty points to their house."  
  
Students jumped up and began chasing the demon, waving wands and yelling incantations.  
  
The demon shrieked and dashed out of the classroom, the students running after him.  
  
Remaining in the room were George and Fred Weasley, leaning back in their chairs with their feet on their desks. Britomartis raised her head and stared at them. "Well, gentlemen, I must congratulate you on summoning a Japanese demon."  
  
Both fell backward, their legs swinging in the air and their robes flying back to expose their Bermuda shorts and freckled, skinny legs. Britomartis kept her face straight, glad for her sunglasses covering her eyes and not letting the boys see her about to break into laughter. Somebody was ready for summer, it seemed!  
  
Fred regained his composure. "All right, Professor Vox, you caught us. Bloody clever of you to figure out it was us."  
  
She smiled in Slytherin House Mother coldness. "Considering I am the foremost expert on other magical cultures and folklore in this school - save for Hagrid, bless his heart - I know this particular demon is summoned by having two mirrors face each other at midnight on Friday the Thirteenth."  
  
George grinned. "Yes, except we did it while standing in jelly and wearing our shorts."  
  
Britomartis knew not to ask why they were standing in gelatin. "What are you going to do about it?"  
  
Both shrugged. George answered, "He said he won't leave without taking a bride back."  
  
Fred added, "We figure we can marry him off to Malfoy."  
  
Britomartis smirked. "I'll get a pink frilly dress for him." Her smirk became a neutral straight line. "Take care of it, or twenty points off Gryffindor."  
  
Fred rolled his eyes. "You're just as bad as Snape."  
  
"Well, as long as you two keep acting up, I will be there threatening to take points away." The smirk returned. "If I'm able to catch you."  
  
Both grinned. "Yes, ma'am!"  
  
They got up, leaving her room to locate the demon.  
  
Britomartis sighed and her eyes fell on the vase of flowers on her desk, the vase hand painted with the words 'With Love, from the Professor Vox Stormtroopers'. She shook her head. "Those two will be really disappointed when they find out I'm not into teenage twin boys. Pity they didn't ask sixteen years ago. Of course, they weren't even born yet."  
  
She giggled. Two weeks until Summer Break and back home to Crete!  
  
* * *  
  
Professor Snape dashed through the common room of Slytherin House, his brows bunched up, his eyes widened, his normally pale skin now as white as a sheet. Gasping, he raced into the hallway of the girls' dorms and burst into the rooms of the House Mother.  
  
"Spirals!" he whispered. "Hide me!"  
  
Before she could say anything, he dove under her bed like an overgrown bat. A second later, he dragged in the ends of his black robe.  
  
He held his breath as he heard the door open and a teenage female voice saying, "Excuse me, House Mother, but have you seen Professor Spank - I mean - Snape?"  
  
"No," Britomartis replied. "Have you looked in the dungeons?"  
  
"Yes. I went to see him because I've been a very ... bad ... student and need to be ... punished. Yes, I really need ... him ... to punish me."  
  
"Try the library."  
  
"Good idea!"  
  
The door closed. After a few seconds, Britomartis' face appeared upside- down and looking at him under the bed. "She's gone, Snips. What was that all about? Did you encourage her?"  
  
"I certainly did NOT," he replied as he slid out on his back from under her bed. "This has been going on for the last several months - I am suddenly surrounded by hormonally-challenged girl-children who seem to think I'm some sort of ... some sort of 'service stud'."  
  
He could tell she was rolling her eyes at him. "Severus, you're so dense, you can rival a neutron star." She helped pull him out from under the bed. "Methinks the girl-children are getting desperate, now that the rumors about us are finally circulating. Come on, Minerva has something for you."  
  
Severus' eyebrows knotted as he followed her out of the room.  
  
* * *  
  
"It's true, Severus," Professor Minerva McGonagall stated. "This list is a compilation of the last fifteen years' worth of teenage girl students attempting to ... get your attention."  
  
Severus' eyes bugged as he looked over the very long parchment. "A total of one-hundred-eighty-seven counts of charms, enchantments, potions, and love spells cast on me to cause love-lust-passion to the girl in return?"  
  
"One or twice a month," Britomartis added, reading the list over his shoulder. "At least a dozen every February around Valentine's Day."  
  
"I didn't notice any of this!" he objected.  
  
McGonagall smiled. "Of course not - you focus on your work like an obsessed toadstool. They all slid off or bounced back. At least ten- percent resulted in scandals involving student pregnancies and at least one set of girls left the school, married, and opened up an enchanted car-care business together."  
  
He continued reading. "The girls in the ventilation ducts were trying to sneak into my rooms??"  
  
The older woman nodded. "Their shape-shifting spells as rats usually wore off before they ever got to your rooms. One of the older AHP System spells, I think."  
  
"Fifty-two counts of crystal balls being used to look into my shower??"  
  
"Never worked," Britomartis assured him. "The AHP System kept jamming the image."  
  
He sighed. "Keep forgetting that's in place at all."  
  
McGonagall chuckled. "The school has been in operation for over a thousand years - our predecessors were not going to take any chances in students not paying attention on their studies while being co-ed. The 'Anti-Hanky- Panky' System was established to prevent such silliness from occurring."  
  
"Hm," he read to himself. "Reason for all those blank stares in my class ... I thought they were dunderheads, turns out they were fantasizing." He blushed bright red. "I feel quite offended. I thought I was scaring the hell out of them."  
  
"Scaring most all of the boys, of course, Professor Snape," McGonagall confirmed. "But there were several girls over the past fifteen years that found you ... irresistible in their hormone-addled brains."  
  
"Why?" he asked.  
  
Britomartis gently swatted him in the back of the head. "Because a dark, brooding, dangerous older man just screams to the romantic side of teenage girls. Face it, Snips, you're the Stud of Hogwarts."  
  
He made an especially gruesome face of disgust. "I really would have appreciated it when I was a teenager, but now ... ugh." He began to rant. "Why didn't they do this when I was a bloody teenager??"  
  
Britomartis ignored him as he ranted, and whispered to the Professor, "Minerva, why did you make this list, anyway?"  
  
"Because, Martis-dear, it delights me to no end to see Professor Snape realize how thick he is."  
  
Britomartis giggled. "Yes, it is fun seeing him rant like this."  
  
"You two are still chaperoning the End-of-Year Ball, correct?"  
  
"Yes. I managed to talk Severus into 'looking after the sub-amoebic offspring of eukaryotic bacteria' as he put it. He never went to the dances when we attended, so chaperoning one should be enough."  
  
Minerva smiled gently. "No, you both were busy flying brooms over the Quidditch pitch during school dances."  
  
Britomartis' mouth gaped open in surprise; she had made sure nobody knew that had happened! "How did you know?"  
  
Minerva McGonagall smirked, her eyes twinkling behind her glasses. "We professors have our ways." Her mouth curled up into a cute grin. "We had to make sure nothing untoward was happening, even between friends." 


	2. Chapter 2 Backbeat Spirals and the Eart...

Chapter 2 - Backbeat Spirals and the Earth Elemental  
  
"Where are we going again?" Gregory Goyle asked Draco Malfoy.  
  
Draco head-smacked his goon. "Professor Vox is taking us out to the moors for some primitive Earth magic thing she's going to do."  
  
Indeed, a large number of Britomartis' Worlds Religions students were following her on their broomsticks across the wide moors outside the school proper. Students ranged from First-Year to Seventh-Year and from all houses, most all interested in seeing Professor Vox summon an Earth Elemental.  
  
"This will do," she announced as her broom descended to the grass.  
  
The Professor Vox Stormtroopers were immediately behind her - George and Fred Weasley (presidents of the Professor Vox Testosterone Brigade), several male members of Hufflepuff House, select male members of Gryffindor (including their Quidditch Team Captain Oliver Wood), and an almighty number of Slytherin males.  
  
The Stormtroopers had been formed within the past few months when - looking through the Quidditch Annuals of Hogwarts - Oliver Wood had discovered Professor Vox's player picture and stats.  
  
'Britomartis Vox - "Backbeat Spirals" - 1975 - Slytherin Team Beater - Second Female in Hogwarts' History to have Position of Beater - Perfected the Bludger Backbeat - 18 games, 14 wins, 1 Hell-of-a-Victory-Party'  
  
The picture featured her in her Slytherin Quidditch Uniform (open to show her developing body in the tight armor), her sunglasses glaring, her knee- length ash blonde hair whipping in the breezes from flying her broom, and performing the Backbeat play.  
  
This picture had been copied and circulated all over the school, especially among the male population.  
  
The female in question accepted the attention with grace and ignored it.  
  
"All right," Britomartis called. "Pay attention! I require a bit of quiet to do the summoning. I know many of you have never witnessed Elemental magic on a large scale - your reactions to what I will do will determine if you qualify for the summer field trip."  
  
Harry Potter and Hermione Granger ended their conversation about Charms class while Ron Weasley fiddled with his maroon and gold scarf.  
  
Britomartis raised her arms. Snookie-poo lifted her head up in preparation to offer her own serpent energies.  
  
A long, low sound came from Professor Vox; it was not a word nor a chant, but a deep tone from her throat that drew upon the ancient energies of the Earth. Her voice never stopped, never paused for breath, but continued to sing in the same tone, as if it were aligning with the resonance of the Earth.  
  
George leaned close to his twin and sang, "'The hills are alive' - "  
  
Fred finished, " - 'and it's pretty frightenin'!"  
  
They giggled, which was drowned out by a long, loud, organ-rattling laugh from the Earth.  
  
All the students turned to see the moors sink down before their teacher, then heave up, the turf and dirt blowing upward like a geyser.  
  
Over half of the assembled students screamed and ran.  
  
Half of those left had fainted. Several more were too terrified to bother fainting - they climbed up one of the local trees.  
  
A small number calmly accepted the event of a hill growing out of the moor ... even when the grass and dirt developed a gnarled old face that was neither male nor female.  
  
The voice from the mountain of dirt was full and vibrated through their bodies, "Good morning, Priestess."  
  
"WICKED KEWL!" exclaimed the four younger Weasleys.  
  
"Wow, I'm impressed," Oliver stated in his thick Scottish brogue.  
  
"Incredible!" Harry added.  
  
"Agreed," Elizabeth Humphries of Slytherin added.  
  
"It's an Earth Elemental summoning," Hermione explained. "The Elemental takes on the energies permeating an area and the history of the area."  
  
"Wake up, you idiots!" Draco yelled at the out cold Crabbe and Goyle. "And fetch me some clean trousers!"  
  
Britomartis lowered her hands. "Good morning, Moors. Are there any students left behind me?"  
  
The hill shifted, looking over the remains. The eyes - full of lighter clay than the surrounding dirt - surveyed quietly, then rumbled, "There are ten left standing, if that's what you mean, Priestess." It thundered a laugh. "You need to bring them out more often so they won't be surprised if the hills talk to them."  
  
Britomartis glanced at those remaining: Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, all four Weasleys, Elizabeth Humphries and Glynis Ryper from her own House, Oliver Wood, and Draco Malfoy, who looked like he wet himself.  
  
"Well, now I know who can handle the field trip," she stated. "Thank you, Moors."  
  
"Anytime, Priestess." The hill peered at Harry Potter for a moment. "So tiny, so young ... to have such a horrible Destiny roosting on his shoulders." It sighed and receded into the Earth.  
  
* * *  
  
"We can't go!" Ron cried as he dropped his head to the dining table.  
  
Harry blinked. "Why not?"  
  
"Mum and Dad can't afford it," Ron explained into the table. "Can't even afford one of us, much less all of us. George and Fred are threatening to explode a toilet and Ginny locked herself in her dorm room and won't stop crying."  
  
Hermione sighed. "You really should not worry about it. I mean, you'll get to stay home another two weeks during the summer. I hear Crete is pretty hot."  
  
Ron raised his head. "But it's an adventure - of sorts." He brushed his red bangs out of his eyes. "I mean - going on a trip far away from home and not having parents over the shoulder - that's the whole point, right?"  
  
Hermione smiled sweetly. "You didn't hear who the chaperones for the trip are, have you?" The smile became a smirk. "Professor Vox and Professor Snape."  
  
"Snape?" Ron repeated. He rolled his head around, and then picked up his glass. "Oh, great, we'll lose points during Summer Break before we even get back to school! Why the bloody hell is he a chaperone?"  
  
"Because," Hermione said as if she were explaining something completely simple to a three-year-old. She paused, looking up to the head table to see Vox and Snape talking - Snape twirling the ends of his black hair and Vox laughing - and leaned closer to the boys. "Because they're dating."  
  
Ron spat his drink across the table, soaking Neville Longbottom. "They're WHAT??"  
  
"Shh!" Hermione hissed.  
  
Harry shook his head, smiling nervously. "You're kidding us, Hermione. That's Snape you're talking about - you know, the one whose face would crack if he smiled."  
  
Ron's eyes widened. "Bloody hell ... His face didn't crack."  
  
All three looked up, seeing Snape grinning at something Vox was saying.  
  
They looked back down at their food. "Well," Harry said. "He might be more pleasant then, right?"  
  
Hermione rolled her eyes while Ron decided to ignore the revelation by devouring his peas.  
  
* * *  
  
Harry Potter had never been to Professor Vox's office. In fact, the two got along quite civilly as teacher-student and she had shown him no special treatment save for any work he did within class. He liked her in this respect - she was not fazed by the bizarre fame he had grown into. Probably because she knew his parents back when they were teenagers.  
  
He looked through the open door and saw her at her desk, obviously working out an exam. He knocked, and then said, "Professor Vox?"  
  
She looked up, her sunglasses reflecting his image back. "Yes, Mr. Potter, may I help you?"  
  
"I wish to discuss the trip to Crete with you privately."  
  
She nodded, putting the exam away. "All right, then close the door and sit down."  
  
Harry did so, settling down into the hard chair before her big black desk. "It's about the Weasleys."  
  
Britomartis sighed and nodded sadly. "Yes, I talked with their mother by Floo this morning, she and Mr. Weasley cannot afford the trip for them. As I recall, Ginny Weasley broke into tears and the twins became quite animate about blowing up the plumbing. Your friend Ron just sat quietly. I really wish we could find a way to bring all of them along - they are some of my best students."  
  
Harry smiled nervously. "Perhaps a ... what's the word? 'Grant' ... can be arranged."  
  
"A grant?" she asked. "In what way?"  
  
"I'll pay their travel and boarding expenses."  
  
"Mr. Potter -!"  
  
He pushed his glasses up. "Professor Vox, I'm offering this as an anonymous grant for all of them to come along. I know how much they like your class; it's not fair for them to not go just because of money. I'm offering this on their behalf."  
  
She stared at him. He wondered how she was looking at him - anger or gratitude, he was not sure. He never realized until this point that eyes conveyed more emotion than the rest of the face. Part of why he was always afraid of Snape, he guessed.  
  
"Why?" Britomartis finally asked.  
  
"Ron's my best friend and the Weasleys have been nice to me. Ron, George, and Fred had pulled a jailbreak to get me out of my aunt and uncle's house - broke steel bars and everything."  
  
A small smile crossed her lips. "I'm not surprised, actually. All right, Mr. Potter, we shall arrange a Weasley Grant from an anonymous donor to get those four on the trip."  
  
"Good," Harry agreed. "Thank you, Professor Vox." He paused, his brows knotting over his green eyes. "Um, I also have a question ... about a rumor that I heard?"  
  
"Which one?" she asked as she pulled out a notebook. "There are many rumors, but most are not nice and some are downright boring."  
  
"Well ... about you and ... Professor Snape."  
  
"The chocolate dragon suit was a complete fabrication, although the custard story has some element of truth."  
  
All he could emit was a vague "Huh?" in response.  
  
She grinned, waving her hand dismissively. "Who cares? We were friends back at your age and so on and so forth. Don't worry about it." She opened up the notebook. "All right, that's ten going on the trip, plus two chaperones ... luggage alone is going to be a pain. I'll talk with you kids in a few days about what to take and such, all right? Anything else?"  
  
"No, ma'am."  
  
"Then scoot. I have lots of work to do still." 


	3. Chapter 3 The WitchandWizard Tango

Chapter 3 - The Witch-and-Wizard Tango  
  
Malfoy was in a snit.  
  
He was always in a snit in a general way, but now he was in a focused snit.  
  
"What do you mean I cannot take Goyle and Crabbe with me?" he exclaimed as the rest of his housemates were getting ready for the End-of-Year Ball.  
  
"Exactly what I said, Mr. Malfoy," Professor Snape replied sternly. "You do not need your ... henchmen with you on a field trip."  
  
"Of course I do! There probably won't be any servants around!" He whirled in front of a mirror, admiring how his dark blue velvet suit fitted him.  
  
"Call it 'roughing it', young sir," Britomartis stated as she checked her own reflection from behind him. "I'm quite sure you can spend two weeks on your own."  
  
Draco snorted.  
  
"I'm tempted," Severus commented off-handedly. "To take along a very large beast, probably borrowed from Mr. Hagrid, to make sure you dunderheads stay in line. The threat of being eaten usually keeps you all quiet."  
  
"Don't worry about it," Britomartis added, sweeping on a dramatic red lipstick. "We've plenty of large, carnivorous beasts running around Crete - manticores, griffins, chimaeras - all the classics."  
  
"Yes, Professor," Snape agreed. "But can we be really sure they will eat the children we want them to eat?"  
  
She adjusted her sunglasses, and then shrugged. "We'll worry about that when we get there, darling."  
  
"I'd really hate to have to keep track of so many students - perhaps we'll offer sacrifices?"  
  
Elizabeth Humphries tugged on prefect commander Glynis Ryper's sleeve. "I'm not sure if they're joking or not."  
  
"It's Snape," Glynis retorted, fluffing up her hair. "He never jokes."  
  
Draco Malfoy fumed in classic fashion toward his teachers. "Do you have any idea to whom you are speaking?!"  
  
Professor Vox shook her head and clicked her tongue. "Poor boy, your memory acting up? Attention, everyone! Mr. Malfoy has had a memory lapse. Please be kind to him."  
  
"Goits!" Draco cried. "Goits! I'm surrounded by goits!" He looked around at random, and vented on the first person to catch his eye. "Snape - you're a goit!"  
  
"I'm a what?" Severus asked.  
  
"You heard me!"  
  
Draco left the room in a huff. Severus Snape raised his wand, flicked his wrist, and everyone watched as Draco's hair stood on end, then arranged itself into a ridiculously huge beehive.  
  
The door shut, and everyone fell into laughter, followed by several students bowing down before their House Master.  
  
"Severus," Britomartis giggled. "You have a sense of humor."  
  
"Don't let the children find out. My reputation would be ruined."  
  
* * *  
  
The End-of-Year Ball was lovely; the Great Hall cleared of the tables and decorated in a summery night motif. Candelabras full of low-lit candles hung suspended above everyone's heads, while the ceiling displayed a starry moonlit night sky.  
  
Students were having a wonderful time - dancing, talking, calling out songs for the band to play, drinking sticky-sweet punch and daring each other to ask the person of their dreams to dance. The Quidditch teams never ran out of dance partners, and Oliver Wood himself never got to sit down once during the evening.  
  
Draco had come in with the silly beehive hairdo and saw his reflection in a mirror - 'I look like a complete and total TIT!' After sufficient teasing, Snape took the spell off the boy's hair, but arranged it in a more suitably impressive style that did not need massive amounts of gel (and a commentary from the boy that he may keep it like that). For some reason, Draco got more offers to dance than he ever had before.  
  
Professors Vox and Snape sat at the chaperones' table, engaged in conversation.  
  
"We weren't missing much, Spirals," Severus commented. "All the drama happened the first ten minutes. We had more fun hiding Miss Price's glasses during these dances."  
  
"Yes, but it's the socializing that everyone goes for," Britomartis replied. "And the excuse to be able to interact with each other in a semi- intimate manner."  
  
"Intimate?" he asked.  
  
"Have you forgotten dance lessons with Madame Meringue after all these years? Snips, how could you! Especially after all the practice we put in!"  
  
He smirked. "Yes, Madame Meringue did mention in passing that dancing was just as intimate as other things."  
  
"And Peony Danderfluff asking 'What things?' and the Madame replying 'I'll tell you when you're thirty'."  
  
"I never did figure out what she meant."  
  
Britomartis covered her mouth with her hand. "Oh, Snips, please be joking!"  
  
"I haven't danced since before you left, Martis, really."  
  
"Oh, then." She gazed at him, pursing her red lips. "Well, then, Severus Snape, we need to pick up where we left off."  
  
He raised an eyebrow, and then returned with a smarmy smile. "Why, Britomartis Vox, are you suggesting we crash the party?"  
  
"Why not, the kids'll love it. Might blow a few minds in the process, always fun."  
  
Severus' eyes swept over her ensemble - a short, slinky red number with ruffles on the hems and sky-high black stiletto heels - and shook his head. "All right, but you asked for it, Spirals."  
  
He got up and made his way to the orchestra, whispered a request, then turned around as the song started.  
  
A lone violin struck up a Spanish air. Students paused, seeing the figures of Professors Vox and Snape standing erect and serious as they gazed at each other with dramatically stern expressions.  
  
Severus Snape whipped his robe off, the black material flying upward like a giant wing then landing perfectly folded in a chair behind him. He stood in his buttoned-up black suit, arms at his sides, chest upraised in what could have been either Slytherin arrogance or manly pride.  
  
Britomartis Vox snapped a foot out - the stiletto heel clicking against the floor as she crossed it in front of the other.  
  
The tango began - slow-slow-quick-quick-slow - Severus and Britomartis slid across the floor to each other as students vacated the dance floor. The Professors' hands rose up before their faces, then touched the other's and spread apart to the sides. The music shifted; Severus snapped his left hand out, Britomartis clapped her right hand into it - his right arm rounding her waist and her left arm laying over his shoulder, now in close hold - then both turned their heads in opposite directions for a count of two, their hair whipping around their faces.  
  
Following their outstretched hands, they closed in together and slunk across the floor, their eyes never meeting. Slow-slow-quick-quick-slow - they halted, Severus spun her around quickly, and then both returned the middle of the dance floor.  
  
Severus dipped her backward in an arc, raising her back up and bringing her hand in to kiss her palm.  
  
Britomartis pulled away, spinning across the floor the abruptly stopped. Her chest thrust out proudly like a matador, she waited for his move.  
  
Severus brought his arms up and snapped in time with the music, kicking his feet to the back in turn. He finally stood before her and they began to stalk each other, their chests within inches, their faces close as his black eyes and her dark sunglasses stared deep within the other's, their movements fluid as they circled like predators. Slow-slow-quick-quick-slow -  
  
He grabbed her in close hold, pressing her back in their dance. She raised one leg up and wrapped it around his waist, allowing him to drag her backward across the floor. Releasing his waist, her leg lowered again and both entered a complicated combination of foot movements and stomps while their faces were locked to the other's.  
  
Severus dipped her. Britomartis extended her leg up perpendicular to her body and he held it for the fourth to fifth count, and then lowered it. Slow-slow-quick-quick-slow -  
  
He spun her, making her ash blonde bob fly around her face. She stopped, her fingers holding his face; trailing long green nails up his cheek.  
  
Severus dipped Britomartis down as the last note struck, ending the number.  
  
Silence, then the student body erupted into a cheer filled with applause, hoots, and shrieks of approval. Even Dumbledore and McGonagall applauded, their eyes sparkling behind their glasses.  
  
Severus and Britomartis stood, surprised at the reaction from the students. Several of the male students (members of the Professor Vox Stormtroopers) saluted Professor Snape.  
  
Britomartis giggled and pulled Severus off the dance floor with her, both going back to their seats. "Was it good for you, too, Snips?" she breathed heavily.  
  
He blushed. "Stop that."  
  
"You said you haven't danced in twenty years - I don't believe you."  
  
"It's true. I was rusty out there."  
  
She grinned. "Well, after dancing like that, we should get married." She pulled down her sunglasses and winked at him with a moss green eye.  
  
He cleared his throat. "Don't push it, Spirals." 


	4. Chapter 4 Preparations and Prayers

Chapter 4 - Preparations and Prayers  
  
"Please allow me to see your packing lists, Misters Weasley."  
  
The twins and Ron surrendered their packing lists at the Saturday afternoon Crete Trip Planning Meeting.  
  
Britomartis silently read the lists then commented, "I'm glad you all remembered clothes amid the dungbombs, whoopie-cushions, fake vomit, and comic books."  
  
"D'oh!" George - or was it Fred? - exclaimed, slapping his forehead. "I forgot the silly-string!"  
  
"No problem!" the other twin said. "I'll just nip up and -"  
  
"Get suspended for the first semester!" Snape proclaimed.  
  
"Or not," he finished, sitting down.  
  
Britomartis brushed her hair back from her face. "I'm glad you three are getting into the spirit of the vacation, but this is still a scholastic- centric trip. I want you to be studying something in relation to the island's center of magic - whether for the mixing of various magic cultures, the melding of Muggle and Wizard communities due to the UN, the use of both Western and Eastern ways of magic, any of the religious practices of magic, the fantastic beasts of the island - and write your research paper on whatever you chose. I chose two weeks during the early summer since this is the busy time of year for almost everything." She looked up to see Glynis Ryper and Oliver Wood making faces at each other. "You all have read the orientation packet I designed for you, correct?"  
  
Several mumbled affirmatives, although Hermione raised her hand. "Professor Vox, I have many questions to ask you in relation to the packet."  
  
"Will it require a bit of time?"  
  
"Yes, ma'am."  
  
"Then we'll discuss it later. As you all know, both Professor Snape and myself will be your chaperones. We'll all be traveling and lodging together - "  
  
"What?" Draco exclaimed.  
  
"And we'll be staying in my family home while on Crete in the city of Knossos."  
  
Elizabeth Humphries perked up, looking more awake than she had been. It was no secret the Third-Year Slytherin idolized her House Mother.  
  
"Question," Glynis stated. "How are we getting there?"  
  
"We'll be taking the Express to London," Britomartis explained. "Then take another train to South Hampton, then sail out."  
  
Ron's face turned slightly green. "Oh, great. Going to get seasick all over the place ... "  
  
Professor Snape snorted. "If there is any whining whatsoever, I will not hesitate in tossing any of you into the ocean."  
  
"Question," Glynis stated. "What are the rules in relation to this trip?"  
  
"Anyone who acts like a prefect has to clean up after the bulls," Britomartis announced.  
  
"Good thing Percy's not going, then," Fred remarked.  
  
"He'll never get over it," George agreed. "At least he'll be busy at the Ministry of Magic."  
  
"Points and such practices will not be used," she continued. "This is merely students and chaperones on a field trip. Continue to be polite to each other, respect us, and no silliness will be tolerated."  
  
"What's the definition of 'silliness' this season?" Ron asked.  
  
Her head turned to face Glynis and Oliver, both of them now glaring at each other. "My definition of 'silliness' results in me having to make calls to parents concerning why we won't pay bail or hospital fees. So behave."  
  
All four Weasleys nodded in understanding.  
  
"Good. Now, I suggest you study for next week's exams and pass them ... just to make sure you have no obligations preventing you from going. Dismissed."  
  
The ten students filed out of her office, leaving Britomartis and Severus. She leaned back in her chair and allowed Snookie-poo to slither up over her shoulders. "I'm wondering if I should have done this at all, Severus."  
  
He settled on the corner of her desk nearest her, folding his arms over his chest. "I prefer my own summers as far away from students as possible."  
  
"But it's only for two weeks. Besides, I do love all of them dearly ... even Lucy's boy, despite what a pain he is."  
  
Severus laughed. "You're a masochist - no wonder I've always liked you." He became somber again, watching her stare at the Snake Goddess statue on her desk. "Britomartis?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"Are you sure you want me along? We'll be going to your home ... where your family ... "  
  
She looked up at him. "It's for that reason I do want you along, Severus. I'd feel better with you with me. Besides, I need the support when facing my parents."  
  
"They know you exist?" he asked.  
  
"Surprise. And they won't let me forget they realized it." She sighed. "Come on, Snips, I need a relaxing soak. You can scrub my back."  
  
"I don't think so, Spirals."  
  
"Weenie."  
  
* * *  
  
Professor Snape wandered up and down the aisles between student desks as they scratched answers down for their Potions Final.  
  
A week's worth of exams, grading every night, then getting ready for the trip. With the weirdest the school had to offer. For that reason, he knew the trip was not going to be quiet.  
  
And the real thing that was bothering him was the fact that he may not be able to control the urge to slam Martis' parents against walls for what they did to her. Granted, he would have preferred to have her parents over his own - her parents merely ignored her existence while his father beat the crap out of him every time he turned around - but Martis was the one who was hurt. She was worthy, she needed love more than he did.  
  
'Snape, you idiot. You were in love with her even as far back as then. Why else did you place her welfare above your own?'  
  
And why he devoured any affection she offered in childhood friendship.  
  
'Bloody hell, I have a test to watch after.'  
  
"Quills down," he announced. "Place your work on my desk as you leave. Don't get in trouble over the summer, I'll see you next year, now get out of my classroom."  
  
Students scrambled out of the dungeons as they deposited their papers on his desk, leaving him alone in less than thirty seconds.  
  
Severus sighed, collapsing into a student's chair and letting his eyes wander ...  
  
The desk itself caught his eye, the wood seeming to be scratched in several places. Peering closely, he discovered graffiti scratched into the surface:  
  
'BORED' (You're no Goldilocks Lunkhead yourself.) 'Snape is a fine specimen!' (Probably from one of those silly teenage girls that have been annoying him the past several years.) 'Potions suck gas.' (He laughed at this one.) 'I love - ' (This was followed by at least eight names scratched out, the last one being his own.) 'Eye of newt, lizard spleens, etc' (several potion ingredient lists) 'Gods, this guy is nuckin' futs!' (Yes, thank-you for noticing, you form of amoebic dysentery.) 'Snape's a vampire!' 'Is this a surprise?' (I only play one on stage.) (several combinations of girls and boys names, most of them with hearts around them and denoting the vandals were females) 'Dumbledore bee scurrilous knave.' (Severus was impressed, since it was in Old English and written in quite ornate calligraphy. Plus they knew how to spell 'scurrilous'.) 'Wanna sleep ... snore ... snore ... ' (The fact he knew this particular individual was because this individual did indeed snore in class.) 'Slytherin's House Ghost is a Bloody Idiot!' (I suspect Peeves was down here.) 'Snake handlers have firm asps.' (He had no comment for this one.) 'What about the third toe of the Frog God, Snape?' (He's not a potion ingredient, you miserable prat.) 'Minerva loves Albus - 1935' (Please, Gods, let that be a coincidence!) 'He's a Super Freak - Super Freak - Super Freaky - Yow - ' (Yes, most of you are.) 'This is not cheating.'  
  
This last one turned out to be an enchantment and, upon breaking it, the desk was covered with test answers. Looking over the responses, Severus murmured, "I don't remember making out a test like this." He studied the handwriting - and found it was his own. "I don't remember cheating on this particular exam, either. Oh, well, youth and stupidity."  
  
* * *  
  
Britomartis stood before the altar in the student chapel, feeling the presence of some twenty students on the benches behind her, all of them meditating or quietly participating in her evening ritual.  
  
There were everyday things to pray on - in thanks for a particularly productive day, for a restful night, for students to be safe - in addition to the special things for this time of year like students succeeding on their exams and having a quiet, safe summer.  
  
But Britomartis added more to her petition -  
  
'Great Mother, grant me the compassion to forgive my parents, grant me the strength to not fall apart upon the shrine of my children, grant me the patience to survive this trip to my homeland with my students and my dearest friend. May the Goddesses open my eyes, mind, and heart to lessons I am to learn, and may I profit by their teachings. By the Serpent of Mystery and the Labrys of Transformation, I offer myself to the wisdom of the Crone Goddess.'  
  
No one save Snookie-poo saw the tears streaming down her face. The snake lifted her head and licked them to comfort the High Priestess. 


	5. Chapter 5 En Route

Chapter 5 - En Route  
  
Suitcases for the Crete Trip members began to appear the day before their scheduled leaving. Most all were packed by mothers, accompanied by notes to take care of themselves and to behave (Mrs. Weasley's stating that if any of her brood cause an international incident, she and their father will disown them - none of the Weasleys seemed to take the threat seriously).  
  
"Mr. Malfoy," Britomartis began. "Why do you need seven steamer trunks for a two week trip?"  
  
"Clothes, of course," Draco answered as snootily as he could, remembering not to call her 'stupid woman' again (the last time ended in him having to wash the entire House's laundry).  
  
"Shorts and t-shirts should not have to take up seven trunks."  
  
"Shorts and t-shirts? What sort of low-class sot do you think I am?"  
  
Elizabeth raised her hand and waved it around wildly.  
  
"Shut up!" Draco snarled at her. He turned back to the House Mother. "I am not wearing tourist clothes."  
  
"It gets quite hot on the island," Britomartis pointed out. "Wearing dark colors and lots of layers would give you heat stroke. I don't mind you collapsing from it, but then you wouldn't get any research done. It's for your own comfort if you decide to be cool or not."  
  
Elizabeth leaned over the couch arm, grinning nastily at Draco, only a year younger than herself. "You're going to dress up like one of those pretentious yachters, aren't you? White trousers, navy blazer, white shirt slightly open at the neck to show off a navy and white ascot - "  
  
"WHO TOLD YOU?!"  
  
"Ponce!" Elizabeth cried.  
  
"Children," Britomartis warned.  
  
Elizabeth sat up, her blue-streaked blonde hair falling in her eyes. "I was only guessing. Geez, would you be able to dress yourself without Crabs and Gargoyle to help you?"  
  
"Kiss a Quintaped, Humphries!"  
  
"Bend over, Malfoy!"  
  
"CHILDREN!"  
  
Elizabeth and Draco glared at each other. Britomartis rubbed her temples - both her girls were going to be butting heads with the boys on this trip, she could feel it.  
  
* * *  
  
Everyone passed their exams. (Except Marcus Flint, Seventh Year, Slytherin's Quidditch Captain and team Chaser; Britomartis wanted to pull him from the team, but Snape talked her out of it - rumors abounded of how THAT came about.)  
  
Prefect commander Glynis Ryper graduated with high honors, prompting a huge Slytherin House party resulting in nobody in the entire dorm building to get any sleep, several hangovers (although none remembered what they drank nor whom supplied it), and Oliver Wood from Gryffindor hanging upsidedown from one of the hoops on the Quidditch pitch (he had no idea who had hung him up there, either).  
  
Everyone boarded Hogwarts' Express the following morning - students hugging, saying good-bye, promising to owl messages - while Rubeus Hagrid looked after them to make sure they got on board.  
  
"Sure you don't need me along, Martis?" Hagrid asked.  
  
Britomartis grinned, smoothing a wrinkle out of her turquoise sundress, then stroked Snookie-poo's sleeping form as she snoozed around Britomartis' shoulders. "I'm quite sure, Hagrid. You don't need to bring home any more exotic pets."  
  
The large hairy man blushed. "How did you know that's what I was thinking about?"  
  
Ron leaned close to Harry, "Because it's more reliable than buying them off of strangers at pubs."  
  
Harry giggled and climbed up on the train, Ron following, both in t-shirts and jean shorts, looking like any other pair of pre-teen boys.  
  
Hermione pulled Ginny in with her, both wearing skirts and blouses. "Professor Vox told me a lot about her culture, so I better tell you before we get there - some of it is REALLY strange."  
  
George and Fred slung their satchels over their backs and got on the train, both of them in Bermuda shorts and Hawaiian-print tourist shirts. Both were singing some 1960's surfing song they had picked up somewhere.  
  
Glynis and Oliver were arguing - she in capris and tank top and he in jeans and t-shirt - as they walked to a back car. "And what would you know about the drama club? You're a jock!"  
  
"But I know good acting when I see it, Ryper," he answered in his thick Scottish accent. "I thought your performance in 'Anthony and Cleopatra' was a comedy."  
  
"You've been hit in the head with a bludger too many times! And the bludger's dented from it, too!"  
  
Draco - clad in the 'pretentious yachter' outfit described earlier - was being followed by Elizabeth (dressed in jeans and a tank top) who was imitating his walk, sneer, and body language all in an exaggerated fashion.  
  
"Stay away from me, Humphries."  
  
"No, I like bugging you too much."  
  
"Mudblood freak - get me a drink."  
  
"Get it your own damn self, inbred squib."  
  
Severus Snape was actually relieved Britomartis had packed everyone's wands together. Humphries and Malfoy were getting dangerously close to hexing each other. It would not do for Slytherins to hex each other when there were Gryffindors around ...  
  
He glanced down at his own clothing - his black buttoned up suit - and was glad for his own preparation. Quite honestly, he had never traveled to the Mediterranean but Britomartis' warnings about the heat had him scrambling to create a potion from lizard blood, elephant ears (the plant, not the beast), and several extracts of odd and varied things, resulting in a cooling salve he could wear under his clothes and not be bothered by the heat (there were commercial products, but they were both pricey and less effective). Fortunately, it allowed him to wear clothing to cover up the Dark Mark. Unfortunately, it smelled like night-blooming jasmine, which was not quite his scent of choice.  
  
"All aboard!" the conductor called.  
  
He made his way to the cars, helping Britomartis up the steps.  
  
"Thank you, darling," she replied, offering her hand back down to him. "We're on our way."  
  
"I reserved first class," he reminded her. "A bit of privacy from the students."  
  
She nodded, slightly distracted. "That's nice, Severus."  
  
He followed her down the walkway, bypassing student cabins. "That's out of character for you."  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"Upon such a comment, you would make at least one innuendo of my reasoning behind such actions. Martis, are you feeling well?"  
  
"Sure," she replied, releasing a brilliant smile. "Just traveling jitters is all." She entered their cabin, looking around to see his black potions bag, her carry-on bag, and the box of student wands stowed already. Sitting down, she added, "All right, I'm nervous about going back home."  
  
He settled next to her in the seat. Snookie-poo slithered down her arm and made her way over to the other cabin seat to settle in for a snooze. The train began to move, lurching out of the station. "We don't have to go, Martis. We can take the children to Germany - "  
  
"No!" she yelped, then pulled him close in a hug. "No," she repeated more calmly. "I need this. I've ran for almost six years. I can't run any more. I have to show my children and husband that I did not forget them, even in death. I still love them, I still adore them, they have to know that. I need this."  
  
Severus said nothing, just holding her as the countryside swept by their window.  
  
* * *  
  
Elizabeth Humphries and Glynis Ryper shared a cabin and assorted gossip about the members of their field trip party.  
  
"Has George hit on you yet?" Glynis asked as she broke open a package of shortbread. "Or Fred? Or George and Fred?"  
  
"No," Elizabeth answered as she shook her head. "I think I'm too young for them to notice."  
  
Glynis handed her a shortbread cookie. "I had to beat off Fred with my carry-on. Fifteen-year-old boys should be locked away until they're thirty."  
  
"Professor Vox calls them 'Frick and Frack'."  
  
Glynis flicked her short black hair back. "They're pains, that's what they are. Although their sister Ginny is a sweetie, a little shy though."  
  
"That Hermione Granger is the pain," Elizabeth corrected her. "Little Miss Know-It-All. I know I'm going to have my boot up her butt sometime during the trip."  
  
The older girl laughed. "Just remember the House Mother's advice - don't get caught."  
  
Elizabeth kicked her feet against her benchseat. "Have you read the orientation packet?"  
  
"Nope. I was too busy studying for finals." She sat up. "We probably should get a crash course from Professor Vox about it."  
  
"You mean go nag her?"  
  
"Why not? She likes us kids too much to tell us to bugger off."  
  
Elizabeth followed Glynis out of their cabin, making their way through several cars toward the first class areas.  
  
Oliver Wood poked his head out of a cabin. "And what are you two pretty snakes up to?"  
  
Elizabeth flushed, feeling her ears get hot. She had always thought Oliver was gorgeous and frequently wanted to cheer for him at Quidditch matches, but she could due to being in different Houses.  
  
Glynis rolled her hazel eyes. "Shut your hole, Wood."  
  
"We're going to ask Professor Vox about Crete," the younger girl answered.  
  
"Ah, didn't study your orientation packet, either." He slipped out of his cabin and grinned. "Me, neither, so let's all do it together."  
  
"Great," Glynis sighed as they continued on another few cars. "What a threesome we make."  
  
She halted then her eyes bugged out as she gazed through the glass windows of their chaperones' cabin.  
  
"What is it?" Elizabeth asked as she and Oliver crowded around her to see. "Eep!"  
  
"My God!" Oliver exclaimed. "He's devouring her face!"  
  
Glynis swatted him. "They're kissing, you idiot!"  
  
"But that's Snape!" he objected.  
  
She pushed the two back down the hallway. "So? Just shut up and pretend you never saw it!"  
  
"I wish I never DID see it!" he added. "Gah, give me a Memory Charm, please!"  
  
"I think it's sweet," Elizabeth sighed.  
  
"I'd think the same if it wasn't Snape involved in it!" Oliver shuddered. "Did he really need to examine her tonsils like that? Ugh!"  
  
Glynis - a former secret member of the Professor Snape Estrogen Brigade - shoved him. "Just shut up, jock. Maybe we can ask Granger for her packet - she probably has notes on hers explaining everything further."  
  
"Yeah, think about the trip - not the fact that our chaperones need chaperones themselves."  
  
"You have a dirty mind, Wood."  
  
"And you don't have a sense of humor, either."  
  
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "Will you two stop it? You act worse than First-Years!"  
  
* * *  
  
Several pre-teens and teenagers pushing trolley-carts appeared from one of the supports between Platforms Nine and Ten at a London train station. Leading the way was a woman in a turquoise sundress, black sunglasses, ash blonde bob, and a snake wrapped around her shoulders. Immediately following the group was a man in an elegant black suit and long black hair falling in his face.  
  
"Over to Platform Two, students!" the woman called. "Our train for South Hampton leaves in fifteen minutes!"  
  
The redheaded children raced their trolleys, zipping past a conductor. The conductor spun around, surveying the group who appeared to be ten children between the ages of eleven and eighteen, lead by the woman with a snake, and a few cages amid their belongings holding animals.  
  
The conductor stopped the dark man who was obviously part of the group. "Hold on, what are you all up to?"  
  
Severus Snape sneered. "What does it look like? We're taking these wretched little students on a field trip."  
  
"With all those animals?"  
  
"The ones pushing the trolleys or the ones in the cages?"  
  
"Uh ... "  
  
Snape stared down at the little man until the conductor flinched and moved away. Twirling around, Snape caught up with his students and Britomartis, muttering about the Muggle world.  
  
At last, they boarded their train and left London, heading down to the shipyards.  
  
"Not as classy as the Express," Ron commented as he looked around the car and rows upon rows of seats. "Probably can't buy any Botts Beans on board, either."  
  
"Have mine," Ginny said as she twisted around in her seat in front of him and handed her box over. "I'm still trying to get that liver taste out of my mouth."  
  
Ron looked into the box. "Hey, you ate all the grass ones."  
  
"I actually like those."  
  
Hermione's head appeared over her seatback. "Do any of you have any idea of how to behave in the Muggle world?"  
  
"Yes," Draco answered. "Ignore them and they will go away. Like I wish you would."  
  
Ron's face fell into a mask of confusion while Harry acknowledged his own experience. Ginny stared at her. "I noticed the Muggle world is full of people who don't smile."  
  
"That's because my parents are probably checking their teeth," Hermione sighed.  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"Nevermind. The trick is to be inconspicuous." She gazed at Draco in his rich yachter outfit. "As much as possible."  
  
"Is there a spell for that?" Ron asked.  
  
"No, you have to rely on your two brain cells and try not to stick out."  
  
Ron crossed his eyes and mimicked her, "'You have to rely on your two brain cells and try not to stick out'."  
  
Hermione gave him a pointed look and slid back down in her seat. Ginny remained over hers. "What are you going to do your papers on?"  
  
Ron sucked down a jellybean, then made a face. "Well, I want to see what they have. I'm mostly interested to see what kind of food they have. I might do my report on how they serve their foods - if they have something like house elves or whatever to do it." He turned. "How about you, Harry?"  
  
Harry shrugged. "I don't know yet. I'm interested in everything she mentioned, so I might just take notes on everything the first week, then research the second week. How about you, Ginny?"  
  
Ginny dimpled, her freckled face blushing a little. "I'm kinda interested in the beasts of the island. I'm sick of Charlie talking about dragons all the time. I want to see a flying horse!"  
  
"Rubbish," Draco proclaimed.  
  
"I really wonder how you got on this trip, Malfoy," Ron commented. "You can't stand Vox's course and you wet yourself when the hill started talking."  
  
"I did not wet myself!"  
  
"Then you spilled a lot of tea down your trousers. Shouldn't carry around invisible tea-sets." Ron inhaled another jellybean. "Why are you here bugging us, anyway?"  
  
From behind Ron, Harry, and Draco's seat, Elizabeth's head appeared. "Oh, you didn't hear? Draco's Mommy and Daddy are going to be out-of-town for a couple of weeks and they couldn't find a babysitter for him who could change his diapers - "  
  
"Shut up, Humphries!"  
  
"Sit on it, Malfoy!"  
  
"Children!" Professor Vox's voice called.  
  
"Sorry, ma'am!" they called back.  
  
Elizabeth smiled sweetly. "Anyway, I for one cannot wait to sail. I've never been anywhere except Great Britain." She disappeared again.  
  
Ron shrugged. "Rumania's kinda depressing, although the dragon reservations are cool."  
  
Draco opened up a muscle car magazine he found in the seat pocket in front of him and flipped a few pages. "Whoa. I didn't know there were spells to make them that big."  
  
George and Fred - behind Draco's seat - appeared and Ron and Harry leaned over to look.  
  
"Wicked ... " the Weasley boys commented.  
  
Harry blushed bright red while Ginny blushed as well and slipped back down to her seat.  
  
"Look at that car's engine! Must be six hundred cc's!"  
  
Ginny sat up and angrily walloped her nearest sibling.  
  
"What?!"  
  
* * *  
  
The sail did not last as long as the train rides. The group had just settled down on the ship when it sailed a few miles out to the channel, then dipped under the ocean to suddenly appear once again off the coast of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea.  
  
The island was large, hilly and rocky but covered with sage green grasses. Pure white buildings and walkways lined the hillsides, appearing to almost float in the dark blue and purple dusky sky behind them, their walls brilliant in the last rays of the setting sun.  
  
"Look at it, children," Britomartis said softly. "The island where the myths of the Minotaur originated for the Greek world. Where the Great Mother ruled with the Wisdom of the Serpent and the Labrys of Transformation." Her mouth was in a neutral line, likely out of exhaustion from the trip. "There is no need to hide magic here, so you can fly your brooms around the island. The Muggles of the island are seekers into the magic arts of my culture, UN military people who don't notice anything, and probably the only society on Earth in which mundane and magic meet at the twain. There are only two main wizard families on the island - I'm descended from both. The rest that practice magics are in relation to the Earth magics."  
  
Britomartis became silent. She felt Severus' hand on her back. "Yes?"  
  
"You've been getting more and more depressed on this trip, now you're on the verge of tears, Martis," he whispered against the back of her neck.  
  
"I'll be well. I just need to do a few things when we get in." 


	6. Chapter 6 City of the Double Axe

Chapter 6 – The City of the Double Axe  
  
Two young men greeted the students and teachers as they disembarked - one of them picked up Britomartis in a hug and kissed her cheeks.  
  
"Aunt Martis!" he exclaimed, putting her back down. "We missed you so much!"  
  
"Damon, when did you grow up?" she asked. She turned to the other young man. "Dorian, good to see you grown up as well. Nephews, these are my students from Hogwarts - " She introduced the teenagers, while Hermione, Glynis, and Elizabeth began to drool in the general direction of the well- built young Cretan men with dark eyes, bronze skin, and wild black hair. "Children, these are my nephews Damon and Dorian Vox."  
  
"Welcome to Crete," Damon greeted them. "My brother Dorian is the dolphin researcher. Ask him nice and he'll let you ride the dolphins. I'm the Bull Leaper."  
  
"Bull Leaper?" Glynis asked, pushing Draco out of the way. "Isn't that dangerous?"  
  
"Yeah," he replied, pulling away a flap of his tunic to show a scar on the right side of his ribcage. "Fame, glory, and chicks dig the scars."  
  
"Very," Glynis agreed, brushing her hand through her short hair.  
  
"Miss Ryper, please try not to seduce my nephew tonight," Britomartis stated.  
  
"What about tomorrow?"  
  
"We'll discuss that later - right now we need to get in and wash up for dinner." She tugged Damon away from her student. "Dear, be a darling and strap your grandmother down before she makes a fool of herself when greeting me."  
  
He nodded. "Gram's been a basketcase, Auntie. Been driving the family mad with her 'guilty mother' shtick."  
  
Martis did not comment. Damon ran off and Dorian replaced his spot next to her, holding the torch aloft to light the walkway up to the Vox household on one of the hills around Knossos.  
  
"How have you been, Aunt Martis?" Dorian asked quietly. "We haven't seen you since the ... you know."  
  
"Recovering. Tell me, is the shrine - ?"  
  
"Still in the family shrine. Grandmother's looked after it more than any other." He swallowed. "Aunt, Grandmother really regrets what she did to you. I think - "  
  
Britomartis turned to her nephew. "I want to hear it from her if she has."  
  
Dorian Vox bowed his head. "As you wish."  
  
Behind them, Severus Snape remained quiet. He had no place here. This was Britomartis' world - her past, her life, her family. He had no part of this.  
  
But he will be there, in case she needs him.  
  
* * *  
  
Saphira Vox was a matriarch who had two regrets in her long life.  
  
The neglect of her youngest child Britomartis, and the fact the realization came at the expense of her grandchildren's lives.  
  
She was beyond the excuse stage. And the apology stage.  
  
All she wanted now was to hold her baby again and do it right. But Britomartis' parting words just after the funeral of her own family still stung Saphira's heart: "It's too late, Saphira. Everything's dead and the past is lost. Don't grasp at incense smoke."  
  
The front doors opened and she stood straight as the Matriarch of the Vox family. Behind her, the wall frescoes were brightly painted with dolphins and sea creatures, bordered in scarlet and deep greens. The stone pillars were also spiraled with stylized snakeskin patterns. It was one of the more expensive and elegant homes of Knossos, befitting the former High Priestess of Atana Potinija and her husband, an advisor in the courts.  
  
Dorian came first, followed by Britomartis then a man she did not recognize, followed by ten children, all under eighteen.  
  
"Welcome to my home," the old woman intoned. "I am Saphira Vox, your hostess during your stay. I am sure you are all hungry and tired, so please make use of the washrooms and join me for dinner."  
  
"Where are the servants?" one blonde boy with an arrogant air asked. "I had to carry my own trunks up here!"  
  
The dark-haired man standing awfully close to Saphira's daughter glared at the child who immediately quieted. One of the older children, a strapping young lad with brown hair, bowed down. "Thank you for your hospitality, Lady Vox. I am Oliver Wood." He stepped back.  
  
Following Oliver's example, the rest of the students bowed or curtsied and introduced themselves - even the rude blonde child after a fashion.  
  
"What an interesting scar. I've heard rumors of such a scar," Saphira murmured as she peered into Harry Potter's face during his turn. "Tell me, child, have you faced the darkness yet?"  
  
"Beg pardon?"  
  
"I think you have ... and have not ..." She clapped her hands. "Your rooms and washrooms are located in the north wing of the house, where the children's rooms used to be. Everything is set out for two in each room. Dinner will be served in a half-hour - please be refreshed by then. I will send servants up to summon you to dinner."  
  
The students thanked her and made their way with their luggage up the stairs to the bedrooms.  
  
Saphira dropped the glamour of Matriarch and held her arms out. "My Britomartis ... "  
  
Her daughter responded formally, "Good evening, Lady Saphira, thank you for allowing my students to stay here. You will be reimbursed."  
  
Saphira did not pursue the attempt at reconciliation. "And welcome to my home, young man."  
  
Severus turned around to see if a student was behind him, noted there was not, then decided she may have been speaking to him. He stepped forward next to Britomartis. "Good evening, Lady Vox. I am Professor Severus Snape, Potions Master at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."  
  
"A pleasure to meet you, Professor Snape." She paused. "Your name is familiar."  
  
Britomartis cleared her throat. "I had written you twenty years ago about him - he was my best friend while I attended there, Saphira." She snaked her arm into his, pulling him close. "Now we're House Master and House Mother of Slytherin."  
  
Saphira's eyes widened. The mentioning of their positions - plus the movement of closeness - made the old woman jump to conclusions. "Well, then, that's nice. Oh, my, if I had known - "  
  
"Known?"  
  
"Well, I suppose we could move you both into a room, there would be no problem in that regard - "  
  
Saphira wandered off, muttering to herself.  
  
Behind her, Severus blinked, feeling like a tornado had gone through. "Was she having the same conversation as you?"  
  
"I don't think so." Britomartis shrugged. "If you'll excuse me ... "  
  
"Yes." She made no move to go. Severus touched her hand, not really wanting to make her go, but knowing she needed to. "Martis, you're still gripping me."  
  
She released him. "Sorry."  
  
* * *  
  
Britomartis used to sit in the middle of the entry hall when she was a child and crawl around the spirals the mosaic tessera was arranged into. She would outline the fish and dolphins with her chubby fingers, softly singing songs of the ocean the real dolphins had taught her.  
  
The light would stretch across the floor from the windows, each day they stretched longer or higher, marking the exact point her father would come home from the courts.  
  
A hug was accepted, then he was off again. She would sit back down and tell stories to the bulls along the lower half of the walls, of older siblings training to leap over them and reciting the tale of the mythical Minotaur. The sunlight became dimmer. She would roll onto her back and stare up out one of the windows and into a cloudless blue sky, framed by the borders of the windows.  
  
The sky would darken, then her mother came home. A casual brush away, then she was gone, too. 'Love you, mommy.' 'Nice, dear, I need to do something.'  
  
When she was old enough to go outside, she wandered the central regions for hours. Dion Tuzoia - later to become her husband Dion Vox - was an older boy who had his own flying carpet. Both would escape their houses and fly around the island, skimming over the ocean waves, buzzing the sheep, outracing the deadly attentions of the manticores. They would lay on top of the ruins of one of the temples, gazing at the cloud-streaked sky and telling each other stories.  
  
Funny, but even Dion had helped in raising her.  
  
When she went to Hogwarts, she came back every summer and practiced to be a Beater for the Quidditch team. Dion would toss rocks at her across the landscape as she steadied on her broom and hit them. This was how she perfected the Backbeat Bludger the first time, swinging her bat in a backhand hit and sending the bludger several hundred yards behind her, plowing into the Chasers of the other team.  
  
Then going back to Hogwarts, hanging around with Severus Snape and hexing the Marauders. Pulling pranks they were never caught at - or spectacular jokes that even impressed Dumbledore. That had been the happiest time, when she was the darling of Slytherin House and she was known as Spirals, the perfect balance to Snips.  
  
Dion had kissed her that last summer ... and when she graduated from Beauxbatons, they were married.  
  
Her parents did not care much, while his were quite proud he had married into a high family. It did not matter - theirs was a love match, not one of the arranged messes that their siblings had been shoehorned into.  
  
And Priestesshood. Becoming the voice of Atana Potinija, Snake Goddess and Mother of Mysteries, wearing the tiered skirt and tight bodice of the priestesses with Medusa wrapped around her arms and shoulders. The cool temples filled with incense and offerings and chants of the Goddess.  
  
Motherhood. Alia her first born, and falling in love with each and every child she birthed. How could one not love a child borne from her own womb? Each child loved and adored ... Alia with her obsession of dolphins ... Sybil and her fascination with her bull leaping cousins ... Eneas making castles on a sandy beach ... Vasilis starting to walk ... he had called her 'mama' just that week ...  
  
Britomartis swallowed the tears, carrying the torch high as she opened the door to the shrine room.  
  
Torches lit the room of the family shrine. Nooks and cubbies lined the walls - several generations of Vox ancestors filling these nooks with pictures or their treasured possessions.  
  
The west wall held a large nook at a bit over waist-high, this one very well cared for with fresh flowers and burning incense, offers of small fruit before the picture along with hair combs and toddler items of her children and a shield of manticore flesh that was once her husband's.  
  
The picture was of her children and husband - an informal, normal photograph without movement - Eneas riding piggy-back on his father's neck while Dion held Vasilis, Alia leaning against his side and hugging Sybil. All of them smiling or laughing, their shimmery brown hair pulled back from their faces and Dion's black curly hair falling in his face.  
  
Yes, it was his hair and his smile that she fell for, once she realized that her friend was indeed a rather nice-looking male. Many of the priestesses commented her husband was one of the best looking men on the island.  
  
But Dion was her friend, her equal, the stable element of unconditional love in her life. 'Martis, love comes in two flavors - unconditional and restrained. I believe in unconditional; I know you do, too. Our babies aren't going to know loneliness as long as we're alive and have them to love unconditionally.'  
  
"And I couldn't keep you alive," Britomartis whispered, her voice hoarse in the quietness. She knelt before the shrine nook, placing the torch in a holder near her. "Dion, Alia, Sybil, Eneas, Vasilis ... my darling loves, Mama's back home."  
  
She broke into tears, and sobbed the cry of widowed wife and childless mother. 


	7. Chapter 7 Bothering Malfoy

Chapter 7 – Bothering Malfoy  
  
Draco did just about everything to test the patience of his hostess - anything besides fish? Where are the personal servants? Barbaric decor. Can't you even afford marble? What is this stuff? Is this all there is to drink? Servant - get me a pillow, this chair is hard! You're called 'Cretin', aren't you?  
  
Saphira wanted to implode the annoying grub, but the older Weasley boys had some ideas floating around their heads. So, according to their advice, she manipulated the threads of reality around the rude blonde child ...  
  
A pair of hand puppets appeared out of Draco Malfoy's head. Ginny and Hermione stared in shock until the hand puppet that looked like Harry said (the words never spoken, but appearing across Draco's forehead): 'Let's go bother Snape!' The Ron puppet responded in the same subtitle: 'Right-o!' Another hand puppet appeared, this one looking like their professor. 'I am Snape, Potions Master - ' Harry: 'There he is!' Ron: 'Get him!' The Harry and Ron hand puppets start beating the Snape hand puppet: 'Bother- bother-bother-bother-bother-bother-bother!'  
  
Elizabeth broke into laughter for no apparent reason - the younger Weasleys stared in shock while Harry looked down at his plate and ate, and Glynis and Oliver were busy snapping insults at each other. The older Weasley boys looked smugly proud. Severus himself remained stone-faced, even though his jaw muscles were screaming in pain because he wanted to laugh. Saphira's little old face curled up into a sweet smile.  
  
"What's with you?" Draco snarled at Elizabeth.  
  
"NOTHING!" she chortled.  
  
The Snape puppet fell and the Ron puppet commented: 'That was fun!' Harry: 'I like the part where he stops moving!'  
  
Ginny and Ron cracked up this time, leaning on each other and laughing hysterically.  
  
"WHAT?" Draco demanded.  
  
Harry puppet: 'Let's do it again!' The Snape puppet appeared: 'Oh, no.' Harry and Ron puppets: 'Bother-bother-bother-bother-bother-bother-bother!' The Snape puppet pulled out a wand: 'Avada Kedavra!' The Harry and Ron puppet screamed, then fell down, smoke curling up from their bodies. Snape puppet: 'Oh, dear.'  
  
The real Snape felt a grin breaking the corners of his mouth. He lowered his head and curtained his face with his hair to ignore the rest of the sketch.  
  
A Dumbledore puppet popped up - this sent Oliver and Glynis into giggles.  
  
Dumbledore puppet: 'What's going on, Severus?' Snape puppet: 'I can explain ... ' Dumbledore puppet: 'It appears young Harry and Ron are taking a nap - let's see what's in their pockets ... ' He rifled through as the Snape puppet snuck off. 'Ah, nine sickles and a dungbomb. Must be my lucky day ... Where did Snape go? As a matter of fact, where the hell am I?' He dropped down, then appeared without his clothes. 'Naked time! Dancy-dancy-dancy!'  
  
The whole table dissolved into laughter, much to Draco's irritation and confusion.  
  
After a moment, Snape became aware nobody had noticed his giggling and put his stone face back on.  
  
* * *  
  
Britomartis was surprised to see Severus waiting for her in the kitchens.  
  
"Thought you'd come out," he commented softly. He placed a glass of wine in front of her. "Hungry?"  
  
"A little. How were the children?"  
  
"A notch above high treason - but your mother was the ringleader."  
  
Britomartis stared at him, then shrugged. She pulled her sunglasses off, exposing red eyes from her crying.  
  
Severus said nothing as he placed bread and cheese before her, than sat down across from her at the preparation table. Britomartis ate a little, poking at her food and taking small sips of the wine.  
  
She finally looked up at him. "I'm sorry I dragged you along, Snips. I'm sorry I dragged all the children along. I can't do this."  
  
"You're just tired, Martis," he replied, picking up his own wine and drinking. "You just need to rest."  
  
She pushed her plate away. "You probably think I'm a weakling - "  
  
"No," he interrupted her. He placed his glass down and reached across the table, taking her hand in his. "I think you're the bravest person in the world. I can't bring myself to go to my father's grave - not without trying to desecrate it any more than it is."  
  
"He could do it all by himself," Martis muttered coldly. She squeezed his hand back. "Careful, you're trying to break my hand."  
  
"Sorry." He brushed his hair back from his face. "Well, if you need cheering up, your mother managed to offend me in several ways."  
  
"You offend differently than others, Snips, this should be entertaining."  
  
Severus smiled briefly. "She wanted to give me something 'cooler' to wear, which can barely keep a snidget dry in a rainstorm, then suggested I go to your room to wait for you - while wearing the 'cooler' piece of clothing."  
  
"Subtle as a sledgehammer. She's been like that since ... you know." She drank a little more wine, then leaned close, placing her chin in her palm. "She probably thinks you're my boy-toy and I'm ready to have more babies. Not a bad idea, actually." She lowered her head. "Sev ... I'm really messed up right now. You better go to your room before I do something that we both regret."  
  
His black eyes gaze steadily at her. "Martis, if you need me - "  
  
She looked back up at him, then leaned across the table and darted her tongue out, tracing it over his lips. Her mouth covered his, kissing him deeply. She pulled him up, her hands moving down his throat and to the buttons of his collar.  
  
"Muph-phits!" he mumbled against her mouth.  
  
Her mouth left his, kissing along his jaw. "Just a little, I'm so alone - "  
  
Severus felt his head swim as she brought his left hand up, kissing his palm and down his wrist as she pulled the sleeve lower. "Martis - "  
  
His arm was exposed, the pale outline of the Dark Mark covered by her fingers, her lips kissing down the inside of his forearm. "My Severus - "  
  
"Martis - please!"  
  
He snatched his arm back, then gripped her shoulders and forced her away.  
  
"What?" she breathed.  
  
Shaking, he squeezed her shoulders harshly. "Martis, we can't do this, not in the state you're in."  
  
"Sev, I need this, especially with the state I'm in."  
  
"No." He released her, his hair falling in his face. "Britomartis, not yet. We're both not ready. We're still being teenagers about the whole thing."  
  
"Well, we had to pick up where we left off," she reasoned. "We'll be adults again soon. I just need to be - "  
  
He hated to do it, but it had to be done: "Martis, you're still in mourning whether you know it or not. Don't complicate everything by doing this."  
  
"Snips ... " Her chin quivered, then she broke into tears again.  
  
"Oh, Martis, don't, don't cry - Oh, damn." Severus rounded the table and pulled her into a hug, enclosing her in his arms and squeezing her. "Poor Spirals, always were too sensitive for your own good."  
  
* * *  
  
The students of Hogwarts were allowed to explore the island at their leisure for the next few days. Evidently, Professor Vox had taken ill and was unable to help them out.  
  
But her family was more than willing. Dorian, though quiet, was quite friendly and open as he gave the students a lecture on the mythology and truths of sea creatures in the Aegean Sea.  
  
"Of course there are Sirens," Dorian stated.  
  
Oliver, who had asked the question, swallowed. "Is their song as pretty as the Ministry of Magic says?" He lowered his voice. "Are they as beautiful, too?"  
  
Dorian grinned. "Why you say that?"  
  
"Because the Selkies around Scotland aren't what we call 'gorgeous'."  
  
"Quite pretty, that's what makes them dangerous. If one is not hypnotized by their voices, then their beauty will be your downfall."  
  
"What about the Hippocampus?" Elizabeth interrupted.  
  
"Yes, half horse and half fish," Dorian continued. "A peaceful creature, really, and rather fascinating. Lays large eggs which you can see the forming tadfoul through."  
  
The younger students made noises of disgust.  
  
Ginny pressed forward. "You study dolphins mostly, right?"  
  
Dorian nodded. "Indeed I do. Are you interested in playing with them?"  
  
She nodded. "Yes!"  
  
"Then get some swimming clothes on. Everyone's welcomed to swim with the dolphins."  
  
Glynis grinned. "Yes! Break out the swimsuits, Lizard!"  
  
Elizabeth sprinted back to the Vox villa. "Hallelujah! Thank you, Gods!"  
  
The Weasley twins (wearing matching shirts featuring a picture of Darth Vadar - George's saying 'Use the Force, Fred.' and Fred's saying 'Use the Force, George.') nervously twitched as they sat on the beach.  
  
"Fred, old chap, I was thinking about going to check in on Professor Vox."  
  
"I was as well, George old man."  
  
"But there's a dilemma here."  
  
"Indeed there is."  
  
"The girls will be skipping about the ocean where there are large sea creatures about."  
  
"Right you are, George my brother. They may need protection."  
  
"Exactly, Fred."  
  
"Not to mention they'll be in bikinis."  
  
"Correct again. Shall we keep an eye on things?"  
  
"I think it wise."  
  
"Good, we agree then."  
  
A woman with bronze skin, dark liquid eyes, and incredibly long black hair passed before them as she made her way down the beach with a crab trap.  
  
"Of course, my dear brother," George said as he got up. "There may be girls not of our group that need my assistance. You can stay here - "  
  
"No, no, dear brother. Your superior skills can protect our classmates while I see if the young lady needs anything - "  
  
"I beg to differ, you Puffskein-headed - "  
  
The natives ignored the two freckled redheaded teenagers brawl on the beach.  
  
* * *  
  
Harry, Ron, and Hermione were gathered in the main library of Knossos, realizing none of them knew Minoan.  
  
Hermione cussed in several other languages.  
  
"Oh, my God," Ron cried in false shock. "There's a language Hermione can't read!"  
  
"They never translated Linear A in the Muggle world," she spat. "Otherwise I would have learned it!"  
  
Harry flipped through a book. "Don't we know any translation spells yet?"  
  
"No, there aren't any," Hermione answered as she plopped on a stuffed leather chair. "Most of the books in the restricted section are probably in other languages, too, now that I think about it."  
  
"Never stopped anyone," Ron snickered. He stretched. "We have about a dozen days left. I intend to have a little fun while here. Wanna fly our brooms over the island, Harry?"  
  
Harry shut the book and placed it on a table. "Sure. Hermione?"  
  
She shook her head. "I'm going to learn Minoan," she stated intensely. "No matter what."  
  
Harry and Ron left the library, with the latter commenting, "She really needs to straighten out her priorities."  
  
* * *  
  
Severus Snape had no problem reading the books in the Vox library (he had studied Greek, Turkish, and Minoan) and had made himself quite comfortable ... even though he could not concentrate on the volumes before him.  
  
Finally, he got up and wandered the halls of the Vox villa until he found the family shrine.  
  
He felt slightly guilty as he entered the room, especially since the open window allowed sunlight to shine right on the shrine of Britomartis Vox's family.  
  
This was the family ... Dion, a Bull Leaper and fisherman, and their four children. All senselessly lost to Death Eaters because Britomartis had crossed their paths and unknowingly gotten in their way.  
  
She had told him after she found out he had been a Death Eater. She told the tale clinically, without emotion, as if she were reciting the history of wand-making, even when recalling her youngest child's mangled body.  
  
Gods, the youngest was a year old.  
  
'And you've done worse things than simply murdering children,' he reminded himself sharply.  
  
"I can imagine it hit her harder than she let on," an old man's voice commented somberly.  
  
Severus looked up to see Eugenius Vox standing in the doorway, his orange robes draped about his still-strong frame.  
  
The Professor looked away. "Back in school, she used to say that she could disappear for days on end when home, and neither of you would notice. She probably thought you two wouldn't notice her own family being murdered."  
  
"We did," the father commented. "Grandchildren had died because of our mistake."  
  
Severus looked back down at the picture, raising his slender fingers to twirl the ends of his hair. "She hasn't forgiven herself, either. Martis ... what I always found fascinating about her work as House Mother at the school was her ability to be with the students no matter what time of day and what her mood was. She practically adopted all the students of our House as her own."  
  
"She always had a strong need to mother everything," Eugenius commented. "I do remember that when ... I noticed ... "  
  
Severus smiled briefly. "I do recall. I had to yell at her to stop mothering me."  
  
Eugenius approached the shrine, standing next to the Professor. "What was she ... like back in school?"  
  
Severus shifted his eyes to look down at the man. "Let's have a drink, and I'll reintroduce you to the Martis I knew."  
  
"Sounds good, son." 


	8. Chapter 8 Magical Creatures and Woollon...

Chapter 8 - Magical Creatures and Woollongong Shimmies  
  
Ron and Harry pulled Woollongong Shimmies over the crowds of the Knossos central market, zigging and zagging at high speeds just above people's heads. Harry's Nimbus 2000 was the quicker and smoother of the two, but Ron kept up by sheer determination.  
  
"Oh, look," a mystic-seeking Muggle commented. "Two boys on broomsticks."  
  
"Looks like fun. Think we can rent some?"  
  
Both boys zoomed upward over the rocky hills, the toes of their sneakers kicking rocks as they swept over to the other side, allowing the zero-G- force to make their stomachs float.  
  
"WOO-HOOO!" called Ron. "High speeds!"  
  
Harry leaned down on his broom to create less wind resistance and shot off over the grassy valleys between the hills. Ron followed not far behind, his red hair blowing straight back from the wind.  
  
A horse neighed behind both, then a pair of roan-colored wings filled their vision.  
  
The boys pulled back, slowing down slightly as a winged-horse of palomino coloring galloped through the air ahead of them. On the horse's back was a young woman with shimmering blue-black hair whipping around her face as she turned to look back at them and smile. She bucked the winged-horse which responded by circling back around and approaching the broomriders.  
  
"You must be Aunt Martis' students from Hogwarts," the teenager said. "I'm her niece Ophelia."  
  
"Hi," Harry replied. "I'm Harry Potter and he's Ron Weasley."  
  
"Come on down. I was going to explore some temple ruins - Aunt Martis mentioned her students were doing research so I'll help you out."  
  
"Thanks."  
  
The three made their way across the landscape until they touched down in a hilly area where a large cave gaped open in the side of the landscape.  
  
Ophelia slipped off the horse's back, flicking her blue-black hair away from her face and smiling sunnily, her dark olive skin perfectly flawless in the short purple tunic-dress and sandals laced all the way up her shapely calves. "How do you like Crete so far?"  
  
"It's a lovely island," Harry answered as he patted the horse's shoulder. "What kind of winged-horse is this?"  
  
"Oh, Gaea's an Abraxan - largest and most powerful of all the winged-horse breeds. This was the same breed that the wizard Perseus Evangelia flew when he killed the Chimaera - before he fainted from exhausted and fell to his death." She smiled grimly. "I understand a large amount of Ouzo was involved when he decided to slay the Chimaera." She grabbed their free hands and dragged them behind her into the cave. "Come on, in we go - we can't spend all day blabbering!"  
  
"Perhaps you can tell us a little about the ruins?" Harry asked.  
  
Ophelia released them. "Perhaps I should, shouldn't I? I'm sorry. I've spent so much time with the other Priestesses, I forget there are people who don't know about the old Minoans - in fact, I'd much rather hear about where you come from. Where should I begin?"  
  
Ron kept silent, trying to concentrate on the dim dampness of the cave around them, the stalagtites and stalagmites dripping minerals quietly in the large space. However, he was bothered by the fact that a smell kept intruding in his nostrils, something that he knew he smelled before, but had no idea what it was or why he liked it, especially now.  
  
Then it hit him - it was Girl. Specifically Older Teenage Girl who is almost a woman with long blue-black hair, ice blue eyes, and smelling really, really good.  
  
He clamped his mouth shut, hearing the blood pound in his ears. Why not - he was a Weasley. His older brothers Charlie was quite popular with girls and the twins were asking out everything that wore a skirt - even Percy had a girlfriend and Bill was dating one of the witches at Gringott's. It was bound to be his turn.  
  
Ophelia spun around, pulling him close. "Look, Ron, there's a bunch of offerings made to the Great Mother over a thousand years ago! The flowers can still be identified!"  
  
Ron swallowed and cleared his throat. His chest puffed out and he stood two inches taller, willing his facial hair to grow out to prove his maleness. He felt the testosterone pour through his blood, lowering his voice and making him darker and more manly.  
  
He desperately wanted to sound intelligent and knowledgable, and relied on chance to say the right thing.  
  
Instead, he blurted out in a squeaky voice, "Wanna see my pet rat?"  
  
Inside of himself, he yelled, 'Oh, bloody HELL!'  
  
Harry did not noticed his best friend turning several shades of red, although Ophelia giggled and replied, "Maybe when we get back, kiddo."  
  
Ron shrank, feeling his previously blown-up male ego deflate like a balloon letting out air in a rude manner. 'Kiddo', like he was some three-year-old still sucking on a pacifier.  
  
Oh, well, he had stuff to research. Throwing himself under a train could wait.  
  
* * *  
  
Draco Malfoy knew Professor Vox was vulnerable. It was something predators could figure out when they knew prey animals were wounded. He liked to think of himself as a predator, anyway. It might be more accurate to say it was the sense of a scavenger detecting the weak and infirm.  
  
The walkways of the Vox estate zig-zagged down the hills to the ocean, their waist-high white walls contrasting brilliantly against the blue water. Draco found walking the stone walks to be peaceful ...  
  
And evidently so did Professor Vox, whom he found sitting on one of the walls and staring out at the ocean, the wind whipping her ash blonde bob from her face and the snake wrapped around her shoulders.  
  
She had pretty olive skin, quite smooth and clear for her age, which was very much on display in the sundress.  
  
"Professor Vox," he finally stated. "I see you are feeling well."  
  
She did not turn to look at him. "Thank you for caring, Mr. Malfoy. Indeed, I am not well."  
  
He leaned against the wall next to her, his back to the ocean view. "I'm really concerned about you, Professor."  
  
"You should be concerned about your schoolwork."  
  
"I am, of course. But you're my House Mother - you care about us, so we care about you. Now, has that Snape broken your heart?"  
  
She finally turned to him, her sunglasses flashing in the sunlight. "It's none of your business. There are things going on that you have no business getting mixed up in."  
  
"Then perhaps I can help?"  
  
She leaned close to his face, her hand cupping his chin. In a painful whisper, she asked, "Can you resurrect the dead? Bring back toddlers and small children who died by the hands of evil?" Her voice never rose above a whisper, but the words became more intense with each syllable. "A loving husband who lay down his life for those same children, whose dying breath included forgiveness for accidentally bringing the evil down upon the family? An entire future wiped away in a single night??"  
  
Draco jerked away, his eyes wide in panic. "Professor Vox!"  
  
Her body limned in gold light, then settled back to normal. "Go away, child. Leave me."  
  
Draco quickly left her, running back into the house.  
  
* * *  
  
Lunch time came.  
  
Hermione returned from the library with several dictionaries and language books, locking herself in the room she shared with Ginny and began using speed spells to learn Minoan.  
  
Elizabeth, Glynis, Ginny, and Oliver returned wearing swimsuits soaked with seawater, and all slightly sunburned. Elizabeth danced around and sang the praises of handsome Cretan men who swam with dolphins.  
  
Glynis and Oliver were in fine form, though. "Next time, don't rescue me."  
  
"I thought you were drowning."  
  
"I was - a little."  
  
"It was four feet deep!"  
  
"Well, I have to learn to swim sometime."  
  
"Not when you swim with dolphins - the poor thing was freaking out because you kept grabbing its fins."  
  
"I couldn't hold on, is all."  
  
"Oliver, you've been hit with a bludger too many times. I'm not surprised."  
  
"Hey, what's that supposed to mean??"  
  
"You heard what I implied!"  
  
Oliver sat next to his Potions Master and sighed, picking up a chunk of bread. "I swear - women were put here to drive us insane."  
  
"I know students were put here to drive me insane," Severus replied. "Where are Misters Weasley?"  
  
"Frick and Frack? I think they're still fighting over a girl that never looked at them."  
  
At that moment George and Fred entered, covered with sand and looking quite roughed up.  
  
Ginny rolled her eyes. "I thought you two were too old to be playing in sandboxes."  
  
"Baby sister," one of them said. "Please note that George is a git."  
  
The other snorted. "And also note that Fred is a prat."  
  
"You're both idiots," she stated to her older brothers as she picked at her fish. "You could stick to girls more your speed. You know - with shopping carts full of garbage bags and wispy little beards."  
  
They both noogied her at once before they sat down and devoured everything within reach.  
  
Draco Malfoy ran in, his tennis whites neatly pressed and starched. "Professor Vox has gone mad!" he announced.  
  
"Has she skipped from calling you 'Little Nazi' to 'Less-Than-Chum'?" Elizabeth asked casually.  
  
Glynis saw Draco fingering his wand and she jumped in with, "'Mad' as in 'angry' or 'mad' as in 'insane'?"  
  
"A bit of both," Draco explained. "She kept ranting on about resurrecting dead children and husbands and some nameless evil and wiped futures - "  
  
Three individuals jumped up - Britomartis' parents running out of the room and Severus pausing long enough to ask, "Where is she?"  
  
"Last I saw she was on the walkway down to the ocean."  
  
Severus dashed off.  
  
George and Fred got up and picked Draco up by his armpits. "All right, you little creep, what did you do to her??"  
  
* * *  
  
"BRITOMARTIS!"  
  
Saphira and Eugenius Vox were old, but they were still parents deep down in their bodies. They ran across the walkways in both panic and guilt, knowing it was still too late to fix the mistakes, but yet willing to prevent more from happening.  
  
She was still sitting on the walkway wall, staring at the ocean.  
  
"Martis - " Saphira choked. "Please, don't do this to yourself."  
  
"Do what, Saphira?" she asked in a neutral tone, neither angry nor sad, allowing no conclusion to be drawn from her emotional state.  
  
"Torment yourself for something that could not be prevented."  
  
"It could have been prevented. I did not have to be a High Priestess. I did not have to be the one to protect the Labrys that night. I did not have to stop the Evil, sacrificing my own children and husband." The sunglasses glinted as she slowly turned her head to them. "So what do you care? Why should you care that the children of the child you never cared for were murdered in cold blood? That I became an embarrassment to the family because I could not prevent their deaths?" She stood up on the wall, the breezes forming her turquoise sundress to her body. "I loved my children - and their father - with my heart, mind, being, and soul. Despite you, I loved! " Her voice became more and more shrill. "And my suffering will never be known by the likes of you - cold-blooded reptiles who simply 'ran out' of affection for your last child! Why couldn't you have exposed me on the hillside at birth so you wouldn't have had to deal with me at all? Why couldn't you have tossed me to a manticore or a griffin so I would never marry or give birth, only to lose my family because of my own stupidity? WHY DID YOU ALLOW ME TO LIVE WHILE YOU DENIED MY VERY EXISTENCE??!"  
  
The silence could be cut with a knife.  
  
Severus' voice sliced through it: "Because you were needed."  
  
Her face turned to him, her lower lip trembling.  
  
"Every family member of yours I've spoken to adores you," he began. "Every student in your classes and in Slytherin idolizes you. When we were in school together, you were the darling of Slytherin House." He stepped forward, his hand reaching up and his face raised. "Back then, you cared for me, and I needed you. Today you still care for me, despite everything ... and I still need you, Martis." His fingertips touched hers. "You are needed, you will always be needed." The wind blew his hair across his face as he climbed up on the wall, carefully balancing next to her. "Martis, you desecrate the memories of your husband and children by clinging to their ghosts - it's not fair to you or to them. Let go."  
  
She broke into sobs, clutching him tightly and biting his shoulder.  
  
Nobody said anything, Saphira and Eugenius standing in shock at the complete baring of souls between their daughter and her friend.  
  
Finally, Britomartis' sobbing quieted, and she wrapped her arms around Severus' neck. "Please," she whispered. "Take me inside."  
  
"Of course," he replied softly, kissing her forehead.  
  
* * *  
  
The adults returned to the main dining hall to discover Draco Malfoy hanging upside down from the iron chandelier.  
  
Britomartis (leaning against Severus) noted the sight of his classmates under him, holding large clubs and Ginny Weasley with a blindfold while she swung her club around wildly. "Why is Mr. Malfoy up there?"  
  
Ginny paused in swinging and lifted her blindfold up. "He's a pinata."  
  
"He volunteered to be one," George added helpfully.  
  
"He insisted," Fred continued.  
  
Draco's objections were muffled by the gag in his mouth.  
  
Elizabeth sighed. "We just thought he hurt you is all."  
  
"No, he just irritated me. Frick and Frack, take him down from there."  
  
The Stormtroopers saluted. "Yes, ma'am!" Then twitched their wands toward the ropes around Draco's feet.  
  
Britomartis looked around. "Where are Hermione, Harry, and Ron?"  
  
Ginny took the blindfold off completely and folded it. "Hermione's studying in our room. Ron and Harry were out flying their brooms earlier."  
  
"They're with Ophelia," Saphira answered. "The Priestesses said she went out to take them on a tour of some ruins."  
  
"Hope they don't get into trouble," Britomartis murmured.  
  
"They're good at that," Ginny commented.  
  
Draco yelped as he landed on the table with a thud and upset several glasses of goat milk.  
  
* * *  
  
"I'm hungry," Ron stated, his voice echoing all over the cave.  
  
"We probably should be getting back, then," Ophelia agreed. "I'm famished, myself."  
  
The three explorers turned around in the cave and headed back to the entrance, the coolness from the rock around them sending shivers through their summer clothes.  
  
"Hold on," Harry said. "I think I see something."  
  
Harry stopped, then stepped back. A dull glint flared briefly from his lit wand, then disappeared. Curious, he now slowly walked toward a shadowed nook well away from the main tunnel.  
  
Ron looked up, swallowing loudly. "Are there any bats in these caves, Ophelia?"  
  
"Some, but if you leave them alone, they leave you alone. Since it's daylight, they'll be sleeping." She trotted after the other boy. "What'd you find, Harry?"  
  
"Come here and look at this!" Harry called excitedly.  
  
Ron and Ophelia carefully crossed the damp floor and looked into the nook illuminated by Ron and Harry's wands -  
  
A large golden double-axe stood on the end of its handle against the nook wall, shining in the wand-light.  
  
"Whoa," Ron breathed. "That's got to be solid gold!"  
  
"But what's it doing in here, Ophelia?" Harry asked.  
  
"I don't know," the teenager admitted. "I'm going to have to ask the Priestesses about it." She grabbed their arms and pulled them with her.  
  
"Don't you want to take it back?" Ron asked.  
  
"It's too heavy for me. Besides, it's obviously safe here, so we can leave it."  
  
"If you say so."  
  
"No problem. Come on, I'm starved now!"  
  
None of them noticed the soft cat snarl behind them as they exited the cave. 


	9. Chapter 9 Weasleys in Love

Chapter 9 – Weasleys in Love  
  
Britomartis awoke with a start the next morning, sitting straight up in bed.  
  
A dreamless sleep, despite everything that happened the past few days, and now the day seemed to be dark and threatening rain.  
  
She swung her legs over the side of the bed and looked down at the rug under her feet, the material dyed and woven into key patterns and spirals.  
  
The door opened and she looked up, seeing her mother enter the room.  
  
Saphira Vox was a tall, imposing woman, even in her advanced years. The light lavender gown fell over her strong body, bound to her waist and shoulders with a red sash wrapped around her. The wide-cuff bronze bracelets hung from her dark arms as her only form of jewelry. Her knee- length silver hair was swept up into a classical style, hanging down to her waist in a long ponytail.  
  
Britomartis could hardly look into those deep blue eyes of her Mother's ... blue eyes that were always cold and distance and impatient, always ready to look away themselves. Steeling herself, the daughter looked up at the mother ...  
  
And saw heartache.  
  
"I've apologized for far too long," the Matriarch stated. "Apologizing could never fix the problem."  
  
Britomartis looked away, pulling the plain cotton sleeping tunic closer to her body. "It's far too late, anyway."  
  
The older woman approached the bed, sitting next to her. "What will you allow me to do, Britomartis?"  
  
She shrugged. "I don't know."  
  
Saphira reached up and brushed slept-on ash blonde hair our of her daughter's face. "I was fiercely proud of you when you came back from school."  
  
"Why couldn't you tell me?"  
  
"Damage was done. I had no way of - "  
  
"You were too proud to admit you were wrong."  
  
Saphira nodded. "Exactly."  
  
Britomartis sighed and bent her knee up, resting her foot on the edge of the bed and laying her elbow on the knee as she held her hand to her forehead. "I feel like a freaking teenager again, Saphira. I thought I had my life together, then I come back, all this crap comes up again, topped off with the repressed despair I felt about losing my family ... Great Mother, I don't know whether to hug you and cry myself to death or slam your head into a wall and stomp on your womb."  
  
"I accept you back."  
  
"You never accepted me to begin with, so how can you accept me back?"  
  
"Then allow me to be a part of your life - I don't have to be your mother."  
  
Britomartis put her leg down again and turned to her. "How can you be a part of my life? My entire life has been operated without anything remotely resembling you. You're a shadowy figure somewhere in the background who's been less important to me than Spiros the garbage collector from when I was seven." She looked back down at the floor. "I don't think I'm willing to accept you as easily."  
  
Saphira nodded, her neutral expression matching her daughter's. "Considering the circumstances, I completely understand." She paused. "However, Britomartis, please note what I say as being completely true - I want you back in the family - "  
  
"I'm part of my family - just not part of yours."  
  
"I want you back as my daughter - "  
  
"You never allowed me to be a daughter."  
  
Saphira restrained herself from screaming - whether in pain or rage, she could not tell. "I'm violently proud of the kind of woman you turned out to be, I regret everything I did not do as your mother, and I will love you like you should have been loved from the very beginning."  
  
Britomartis seemed to be pondering. After a moment, she said, "Do you realize that I can not recall you ever saying 'I love you' to me? Ever? You aren't saying it, even now."  
  
"An old woman can learn new tricks, Britomartis, despite her mistakes. Please."  
  
"Please leave."  
  
Saphira stood, lacing her fingers together in a sign of conclusion.  
  
Britomartis said nothing, still debating if she should throw the lamp full of olive oil at the back of her Mother's departing head or jump up and grapple her in a desperate hug.  
  
Saphira Vox closed the door and Britomartis was alone again.  
  
She fell back on her bed and grabbed a pillow, squeezing it tightly and willing tears that were not there to shed.  
  
* * *  
  
The rain was a downpour all day. Students studied in the library of the Vox home and waited for the rain to stop.  
  
Fred was wearing a t-shirt with a television set on it - the knobs were operational, and he and George (whose own shirt said 'No, you didn't see that.') were trying to tune into an episode of the sci-fi Britcom 'Red Dwarf'.  
  
The girls threw books at them to shut it off when Fred requested, "Glynnie- dear, could you twiddle with the color-knob? I can't seem to get the tint right - it's on my left nipple."  
  
Oliver glared at them to shut up.  
  
A knock came on the door and a headful of long blue-black hair popped in. "Hello, foreign exchange students!"  
  
"Hi, Ophelia," Harry greeted her as she slipped in. "Have you asked the Priestesses about the double-axe yet?"  
  
"Not yet, Harry. They've been preparing for the festival." She smiled then kissed his scar. Hermione looked up and scowled at the teenager who continued chatting, "Anyway, I brought this book over for all of you - it's a phrase book we saddle the mundane tourists with when they visit."  
  
"What's a 'mundane'?" Ginny asked.  
  
Fred took the book Ophelia offered and flipped through it.  
  
"It's a Muggle," Hermione explained. "Magical non-wizard communities call Muggles 'mundane' people because they're ... mundane."  
  
"What's a 'mundane'?" Ron asked this time.  
  
Elizabeth interrupted, "It means 'ordinary', Weasley. Don't you guys at least have a dictionary?"  
  
Glynis giggled, "George and Fred probably blew it up."  
  
"That's a lie," George stated. "We used it to beat sales-fiends with!"  
  
Fred looked up, blinked, then dropped to his knees before the Cretan girl and proclaimed, "Ophelia Vox, will you marry me???"  
  
Everyone looked up and their mouths dropped open.  
  
Ophelia giggled, hugging him against her waist. "Thank you, Mr. Weasley - whichever one you are - but I hardly know you!"  
  
"Huh??" Ron asked. "But I thought - "  
  
Hermione glared even more at the teenager. Draco sneered and muttered about the Weasleys trying to take over the Earth.  
  
George picked up the book and read the title: "'Minoan Phrase Book for Tourists' - " He flipped it open and read the phrases down the page: "'To help English-speaking visitors with their day-to-day needs.' ... 'Wait while I remove these leeches.' ... 'I have been bitten by sand flies.' ... 'There are too many rats.' ... 'There are a lot of mosquitoes here.' ... 'The cockroaches have eaten my shirt.' ... 'Is this poisonous?' ... 'What made that noise?' ... 'Is there a taboo on your house?' ... 'Is the burning finished?' ... 'Is that fish dangerous?' ... 'This floor is not safe.' ... 'The roof is leaking.' ... 'There is no room in this boat.' ... 'We must keep dry.' ... 'She has a bad pain/snakebite/bull-inflicted wound.' ... 'Tear some clean cloth into strips.' ... 'Keep him warm.' ... 'Go quickly for help.' ... Your eyes will need treatment or you will become blind.' ... " He dropped the book, then pushed his twin out of the way and took the girl's hand into his. "Ophelia, I love you beyond all reason - I will marry you!"  
  
Elizabeth raised an eyebrow, then leaned close to Ginny. "What's up with your brothers?"  
  
"They're in love because they met a girl who has the same stupid jokes as them," Ginny answered as she rolled her eyes. "Daddy says it's part of the bloodline - it's how our Uncle Chaney and Aunt Pitty got together."  
  
"You have a weird family, Weasley."  
  
"But never boring," the younger girl admitted.  
  
"I bet not. By the way, is Ron really - ?"  
  
"Like a board," Ginny confirmed, one hand knocking on her head. "Quite oblivious."  
  
"You poor thing."  
  
Ophelia flicked her hair over her shoulder, obviously delighted by the attention of two brothers. "Now, you two need to behave yourselves!"  
  
"But you're perfect!" Fred declared.  
  
"Absolutely brilliant!" George added.  
  
"Date with me!" both cried in unison.  
  
"I'm ill," Glynis muttered.  
  
"Me, too," Oliver agreed.  
  
"Pathetic," Draco added.  
  
Ophelia sighed. "All right. Tomorrow is the festival and I don't have any duties after the rituals. You can sit with me during the Bull-Leaping Games and the main feast. Is that all right?"  
  
"YES!" both answered, getting to their feet. They turned to each other and glared.  
  
"Good, see you tomorrow then!" She waved at the rest. "See you guys at the festivities. Pray the rain lets up!" She left the room.  
  
"Fred, dear chap, you are mistaken - the hot babe was speaking to me."  
  
"George, my brother, you are a git."  
  
Ron and Ginny automatically brought their wands out, swished their wrists, and the twins ended up suspended upside down from the ceiling with their red hair brushing their notebooks for the next twenty minutes as they argued over whom Ophelia actually invited to sit with her and how pathologically deluded the other was for believing otherwise. 


	10. Chapter 10 Death and Love

Chapter 10 – Death and Love  
  
Britomartis had dinner with her students for the first time since their arrival.  
  
None of them overtly acknowledged her absence, but many did express their concern over her health and shared what they had learned.  
  
During dessert, Harry settled next to her and leaned close, whispering, "Do you know anything about a golden double-axe hidden in a cave east of here?"  
  
Britomartis placed her fork down. "How do you know about that?"  
  
"Ron, Ophelia, and I found it when looking through ruins."  
  
Britomartis looked up around the table, then whispered, "Talk to me about it later. Did you do anything with it?"  
  
"No, we left it."  
  
"Good, good." She adjusted her sunglasses, beginning to worry.  
  
* * *  
  
"Professor Vox?" Harry Potter asked a little later on that night in the library.  
  
Britomartis put the family genealogy book down. "Mr. Potter, you asked about the Golden Labrys."  
  
"Just wondered if you knew about it."  
  
She sat in one of the chairs and indicated for him to do so as well. "Indeed I do. The Golden Labrys needs to remain hidden. Six years ago, Voldemort had heard of the power of the Golden Labrys."  
  
Harry perked up, his green eyes becoming darker. "What sort of power?"  
  
"The power it symbolizes - transformation and rebirth."  
  
"Rebirth? Like ... corporeal bodies and such?"  
  
She blinked. "So, that's what the ... the monster was doing - using the Labrys for such ... " Her mouth became neutral. "Mr. Potter, I will tell you something that I have not shared with any of my students. Considering your own history with Voldemort, I think you should hear this."  
  
"You aren't afraid to say his name," Harry observed.  
  
"The power of names is ancient in my culture. Giving power away by not saying the names of evil will make the evil more powerful. Voldemort knows I hold no love for him, especially after what he had done to me." She paused. "Several years ago, I had a husband and four children, the oldest at seven and the youngest at one year. I was also a High Priestess of Atana, therefor I served in Her temples, including guarding the Golden Labrys.  
  
"Six years ago, Death Eaters came to claim the Golden Labrys for their master. I refused to surrender it, fighting them to exhaustion, at last having to steal the Labrys away and hide it within the heart of Crete to keep their foul hands off of it.  
  
"Unfortunately, while I was doing that, the Death Eaters decided to pay me back by killing my family."  
  
Harry's brows knotted and he drew in a sharp breath. "That's - "  
  
" - Evil," she finished for him. "Completely and utterly." Her face was set hard. "My husband fought long enough to die in my arms when I returned. They had disemboweled him ... which was not as horrendous as to what they did to my children." The muscles in her jaw set out starkly against her olive skin. "I hid all that time before I came to Hogwarts. I couldn't face anyone."  
  
She was quiet for a moment, gathering her thoughts, then continued, "The Labrys has not been touched since then. Several of the high-ranking Priestesses know of its location, but the majority of the community does not. If any of Voldemort's spies hear of where the Labrys is hidden, they will probably descend upon the island and kill every person in their way to get to it. Then ... " She gave Harry a grim smile. "Voldemort will get his body. That is reason enough to keep it hidden."  
  
Harry said nothing for a moment, then said, "Ophelia knows where it is. She's been trying to ask the other Priestesses if they know about it."  
  
"Not at this time - festivals take the entire sisterhood to work on. She won't get an answer about anything for another three days. I had best talk to her." Britomartis gazed at him through her sunglasses. "Mr. Potter, Destiny lies like a yoke upon your shoulders. I dread to see it on someone as young as yourself, but you have been prepared for since before your birth."  
  
Harry looked down at the floor. "I never asked for it."  
  
"Heroes never 'ask' for it - they get it shoved on their heads like overripe squash by fairies who run off laughing. Damned exasperating to say the least."  
  
He smiled slightly. "Yeah, it is." He became somber again. "I won't tell anyone what you told me, Professor Vox."  
  
"I know you won't, Mr. Potter." She opened her arms and he gently leaned over and hugged her, being enclosed by her strong, warm arms. He was surprised by her warmth; he expected the Slytherin House Mother to be cool to the touch, but he found her embrace to be warm and even maternal. It was ... comfortable. "Now," she said as she released him. "We have a very busy day tomorrow - better get some rest."  
  
"Yes, ma'am."  
  
Harry left the room, unaware that someone small, blonde, and oily had indeed been listening outside the door of the library.  
  
* * *  
  
Severus Snape was surprised to feel a body crawling up into his bed in the middle of the night. The body in question seemed to be a curvy, mature female wearing a silk gown that exposed as much skin as possible - he concluded this last fact due to the suddenly-hypersensitive condition of his own skin. Not to mention that, somehow, the individual in question had become the focus of every sense he currently had, blotting out the rest of the unimportant universe.  
  
Before he could object as rudely as he could (a reflex he did NOT want to use at the moment), a hand slapped over his mouth and a feminine voice whispered, "It's only me, Snips!"  
  
Severus pulled Britomartis' hand away. "What are you doing in my bed?"  
  
"I needed to be held," she explained, snuggling against him. "Besides, I've been so wrapped up we haven't talked much."  
  
"True," he agreed, moving over to make room for her in the small bed. She drew an arm around his waist. He had often wanted her to do this back when they were kids, just to hold each other tightly and not let go. Even now he could not have voiced this simple desire to her, despite her willingness. "I missed you."  
  
"Missed you, too," she breathed, kissing the corner of his mouth. "You smell like jasmine."  
  
"It's the cooling salve - came out that way."  
  
Britomartis giggled. "Works here, but it's not good for the dungeons."  
  
"Quite true." Severus snaked an arm under her shoulders and pulled her close, inhaling her scent. "Incense and olive oil."  
  
"Always ends up that way here." She raised her head a little, staring into his eyes in the dim light. "I'm sorry to put you through this, you having to rescue me - "  
  
"You've given me threads of sanity before, it was my turn."  
  
"Why did you tell me to let go?"  
  
"Because you were suffering needlessly. We're not allowed to alter the Past - even ones like that." He exhaled loudly. "I know how hypocritical that sounds coming from me - I'm the last person to drop grudges."  
  
"Yes."  
  
"But it was hurting you."  
  
Britomartis gently brushed her lips against his left hand next to her face. "You don't need to suffer for the past, either."  
  
He caressed her face with his left hand. "But my penance will never be finished."  
  
Both were silent for a long moment, hearing the rain pattering against the glass of the windows and the other's heartbeat as they lay silently together. Severus remembered that night well over twenty years ago when they had cuddled closely under the tree, her cloak wrapped around their young bodies as they tried to keep warm.  
  
Fourteen and twelve, now thirty-five and thirty-three. A bitter bachelor and a weeping widow.  
  
"What strange bedfellows we make," Severus murmured aloud.  
  
Britomartis was silent, then blurted a giggle. "Beg pardon, Snips?"  
  
"Just thinking about the whole arrangement," he commented as he reached over the bedside table and pulled a flower from the vase. "'Snips and Spirals Forever' ... at the cost of much sacrifice from both of us."  
  
Britomartis propped herself up on her elbows. "Severus, please - "  
  
"Martis, I should have asked you this twenty years ago when we had all those dances, so I'll ask it now." He placed the small flower behind her ear and added, "Spirals, would you accompany me to the festival tomorrow?"  
  
She responded with a strong hug, lots of giggles, and an exclamation of "Yes, yes, yes!"  
  
The wall immediately near their heads was pounded on, followed by the muffled voice of one of the Weasley twins' saying, "Snape, stop molesting our teacher - we need to sleep!"  
  
"Was I molesting you?" he asked.  
  
"No," she replied seriously. "I've been trying to molest you."  
  
More banging from another direction, this time Elizabeth's voice stating, "Shut your holes, Frick and Frack! They need to loosen up once in a while!"  
  
"Perhaps we should give them reason to think so?" he suggested.  
  
She giggled, hugging him with her limbs. "Snips, you are tease! And I love you so!"  
  
He inhaled deeply, hugging her in return. "And I love you, Martis."  
  
Another pounding, this time Oliver's voice yelling, "GIVE ME A MEMORY CHARM, PLEASE!"  
  
Severus and Britomartis held each other tightly and completely broke down into laughter. 


	11. Chapter 11 – Knossos and the Summer Fest...

Chapter 11 – Knossos and the Summer Festival  
  
The sun shone brilliantly down on the island the next morning, streaming in through open windows and carrying salty breezes into the houses.  
  
Britomartis closed the door to her bedroom (sleeping less than two hours due to talking with Severus until six in the morning) and looked up and down the hall. Hitching Snookie-poo up on her shoulder, she gazed in curiosity at Ginny Weasley pacing back and forth in front of one of the bathing rooms.  
  
"'I'm sorry, Harry, I didn't know you were in here'," she whispered. "No, needs to be believable ... 'Oh, I'm sorry. I'll just leave now, Harry.' ... No, not that, either ... 'Harry Potter, how dare you?' ... Erk, no."  
  
Glynis appeared out of the room she shared with Elizabeth, combing her fingers through her short black hair. "Good morning, Professor Vox." She yawned, then smirked. "So ... how was last night?"  
  
"My sinister plan to take over the school by using my feminine wiles on Professor Snape is going along swimmingly," Britomartis answered sarcastically. "What's Miss Weasley doing?"  
  
"Oh, Ginny's gone nutter. She's been trying to walk in on Harry Potter in the bath for the past few days, but she always loses her nerve before he gets out." Glynis snickered. "Watch this." She strode up behind Ginny and exclaimed, "BOO!"  
  
"I WASN'T TRYING TO PEEK!" Ginny screeched.  
  
"Nobody said you were," Glynis scoffed.  
  
Britomartis approached the girls and shook her head. "Miss Weasley - "  
  
Ginny blushed bright red and ran down the hall back to her room, slamming the door.  
  
Glynis and Britomartis broke into giggles and went their separate ways.  
  
Britomartis found Draco alone in the dining area, spreading honey over a chunk of bread and nibbling at it.  
  
"Feeling better, Professor?" he asked formally.  
  
"A bit, Mr. Malfoy."  
  
"I would certainly hope so, considering the noise last night." He raised an eyebrow in an obscene manner. "It would be interesting for the school officials to hear that two of their professors were ... participating in lewd acts during a field trip and within the presence of their students."  
  
Britomartis' mouth remained neutral. "I'm quite sure you're concerned about being such an impressionable child."  
  
He continued to keep eye contact with her sunglasses. "Father said you two weren't fit to run Slytherin House - he'd be more than happy to help you on your way to retirement."  
  
"I bet he would," she breathed, then smirked coldly. "Unfortunately, Mr. Malfoy, nothing illegal or immoral did occur - so there is no reason to owl your Father about two friends talking until six in the morning."  
  
"But I heard - "  
  
She picked up a grape from a bowl, popped it in her mouth, then added, "You didn't hear anything. In point of fact, if something did happen, the entire island would have known because of the six-point-five on the Richter Scale earthquake."  
  
Draco's eyes widened and he dropped his honey-smeared bread all over his clothes.  
  
"Best to clean yourself up before we leave today," she informed him.  
  
* * *  
  
They had missed the sunrise rituals, but there was still time before the noon rituals, so the students of Hogwarts participated in the beginnings of the Summer Festival.  
  
Oliver Wood used the word 'quaint' quite often while Draco Malfoy only said the word 'Cretin' once before one of Britomartis' younger nephews pummeled him.  
  
"Summer Festivals are the most informal of the holy days," Britomartis lectured as the group made their way through the market square full of snake charmers and fire-eaters and other street tricksters. "It's really an excuse to have a party to celebrate the summer and all manner of leisure activity. There are Olympic-type events to test strength, speed, endurance, and skill, while the central event of the entire festival is the Bull Leaping Games."  
  
Elizabeth perked up. "Damon said he was participating in the Bull Leaping Games - he said it lasts all three days of the festival and it's a test of ... what'd he say?"  
  
"Dumb luck," Glynis supplied. "Personally, I don't see the appeal of being impaled on a bull's horns."  
  
Oliver smirked. "You find such things proof that men have a collective death wish?"  
  
"No," she snapped. "It proves they have collective stupidity."  
  
Britomartis snorted. "Both men and women participate in the bull leaping, it's not just limited to men." She stroked Snookie-poo. "In fact, I participated in it back when I was a teenager and had thought I was immortal."  
  
"Really?" Elizabeth asked. "You are so cool!"  
  
"Thank-you." She looked up at the sun. "Noon rituals should be starting. I want all of you to sit in on at least one ritual while you're here. I trust you all read your orientation packets."  
  
She lead the way while several heads turned to Hermione.  
  
"Hey, Granger," Fred said. "What did the packet say about the rituals?"  
  
"Wipe your feet at the door, don't make a sound, and don't act like touristy bumpkins," she answered with a cute smile. "Otherwise, you'll be thrown into the pit of snakes."  
  
"Are we bumpkin tourists?" Fred asked his brother.  
  
Ron gazed at their shirts (one of them wearing a 'He did it. ---' shirt and the other was in a '--- No, he did.' shirt), then replied, "For us, not really."  
  
He caught up with Hermione and Harry, saying, "No, really, what did she say about the ritual thing, Hermione?"  
  
She looked back at him and noticed his own shirt has a large, pulsing cutely drawn pink heart on it. "The Priestesses' costumes may shock some, although they're not as authentic as they used to be when she was a High Priestess."  
  
"How?" Harry asked. "Lots of feathers and snakeskins and such?"  
  
Ron laughed, "Perhaps bones through their noses!"  
  
She glared at him, now noticing his shirt said 'Best Bud' and had an arrow pointing toward Harry. In the back of her mind, she concluded one of the twins may have given Ron one of their old shirts, because the younger Weasley had pointed out all he brought were solid color t-shirts.  
  
Oh, well, their look-out.  
  
* * *  
  
The Central Court of Knossos was the religious center of the Minoan culture, where the current King of Crete ruled alongside the Priestesshood. In fact, the main temple complex of the Mother Goddess was known as the Dapuritojo Potinija ("Potnia of the Labyrinth") because of the palace being associated with the Labyrinth of ancient mythology. Britomartis lead the group through the outer entrance of the palace, her quiet, graceful demeanor spreading through the rest of the group until they were all silent as they crossed the stone courtyard of the palace.  
  
They all ascended the steps of the main stairway, the students gazing at the proud solid two to three story buildings comprising the political and religious center of Crete. Simple in design, but suitable with large windows and multi-storied walkways and open-air rooms, the pillars delicately painted with double-axes and bullheads or plastered with scarlet reds and plated with golden spirals.  
  
Many of the people within the complex were natives, all clad in sacred robes and gowns, some in very little clothing save for roughly woven kilts or plain loinclothes.  
  
Britomartis entered the temple, pausing before one of the Junior Priestesses who dabbed a mark of coriander-scented olive oil between the woman's brows. The Professor turned to the students and stated in a low voice, "We are entering the temple of Atana Potinija, the Idaean Mother of Crete, from whom all are born and all return. Respect and silence are to be practiced."  
  
The scents of incense, honey, and wine wafted through the doorways, the students following their teacher into the world where she had once been a supreme figure of power.  
  
The rooms were lit by large open windows and torchlight, the walls decorated with spirals and round figures as borders and frames. In the center of the first room, women with tiered skirts and tight bodices, their long hair plaited or hanging over their shoulders, made offerings in a large disk with many notches - offerings of milk, honey, wine, barley, olive oil, and other items were poured into the notches, the spicy incense overpowering these offerings. From somewhere in another room of the temple, voices were softly chanting a hypnotic cadence in ancient Minoan.  
  
Those more sensitive could see Britomartis Vox's figure change as the glamour of high Priestess fell over her body, her head raised in knowledge of her place within the temple, and the aura of the Goddess flowed into her form.  
  
She was no longer Professor Vox - she was a High Priestess welcomed back home.  
  
The snake draped over her shoulders slithered around, wrapping herself around the woman's right arm, her head resting comfortably in her palm.  
  
The Priestesses wore the traditional multi-tiered skirts, brightly colored and shaped like bells. Their bodices cinched their waists tightly, displaying enough cleavage to still remain dignified but sensual. They moved about their duties, not noticing the students.  
  
A lone, young voice called out:  
  
"I am the Snake Goddess. I was the charmer of the primordial garden. I survived fire and flood, And I blessed the Fertile Crescent. Poised and potent, I guarded the gates of Crete, And crowned the monarchs of Egypt. I am sleek and supple, sharp and subtle. You will find Me peering among the pyramids, Winding through the labyrinth, Slipping across the Acropolis."  
  
Another more mature voice proclaimed:  
  
"I am the Sacred Serpent, Prophet and protector, helper and healer. With a mind of magic, A tongue of truth, And eyes of mystic wisdom."  
  
An older voice added:  
  
"I spin with the women. With insight and imagination We weave the strands of many lands Into a long and shining tapestry."  
  
A long moment of soft chanting and low drums beating. Priestesses danced sensually like serpents, snakes spiraling down their arms and around their waists, their movements flowing and smooth.  
  
A woman holding a large, delicate gold labrys appeared before the disk of offerings, snakes wrapped around her waist and shoulders, her face solemn and full of the powers of Earth Magic, looking both as old as the mountains and as young as a drop of rain.  
  
"I dance on frescoed floors. I wiggle and wave over mosaic monuments - Coiling, curving, crawling, curling, Soaring, sliding, shimmering, shining - Creating power and passion, Circling the earth with divine visions, I am the Snake Goddess."  
  
Britomartis fell into the Priestesses' spiral dance, being swept away by magic and ritual older than anything the students and Severus had ever witnessed or felt. Many of the students were fascinated by this figure swirling through the dance, her sundress floating around her legs and her snake-wrapped arms flowing through the motions. This was no Hogwarts professor, but a woman from another world. Women, Priestesses, Goddesses ... and Britomartis blending in, becoming One with the energy filling the temple.  
  
Severus froze in awe, never moving or blinking, afraid to lose sight of her beauty spiraling around the room. Her sunglasses were absent, her moss- green eyes glazed in religious ecstasy, appearing more beautiful and powerful and terrifying than she had ever been. She was in her world, in the temple of her Goddess, fulfilling her place as a long-lost Priestess of Atana Potinija.  
  
Magic pounded through bodies, the air thick with it, as thick as the scent of the incense. Every student felt the archaic power slip into their bodies and organs and cells, drawing alive powers they never knew existed within themselves, giving them a taste of what the Earth is capable of in Her most complex children. And the Goddess spoke, not in words or images, but empathic means, reaching into the hearts of everyone and whispering Her knowledge and comfort.  
  
Several of the students became overwhelmed - Ginny burst into tears, Ron fainted, Oliver and Glynis clung to each other and squeezed the other tightly.  
  
Harry stood where he was, being washed in the energies of the Earth, feeling the history and the lives of the people of this island soak in his soul.  
  
Elizabeth stood transfixed, also feeling these energies - and a desperate sense of wanting to drown in them the rest of her life.  
  
Hermione and the twins remained focused, while Draco was about to fall asleep.  
  
Severus was biting the inside of his cheek to keep from breaking into tears. Not only Britomartis herself, but her own Goddess could forgive and love unconditionally. It was a familiar feeling engulfing him, combining the love of his own Mother and the strength of Britomartis, the only two women in his life that mattered at all to him.  
  
The ritual ended, the soft chants and drumming allowing the participants to ground themselves back into reality.  
  
Glynis and Oliver looked up at the other, realizing they were embraced too closely for their own comfort. They immediately released each other and glared, although both neglected to scoot away enough to completely lose skin contact.  
  
As one, all four Weasleys whispered, "Wicked cool!"  
  
Britomartis did not allow her smile to show. They now knew what she was capable of. Glancing to the group, she noticed Severus gazing at her intently, his eyes filled with a mixture of emotions.  
  
Draco woke up. "What happened?"  
  
He was unmercifully swatted by his fellow classmates for ruining the moment. 


	12. Chapter 12 – BullLeaping by Broomstick

Chapter 12 – Bull-Leaping by Broomstick  
  
The Bull Leaping Games began that afternoon, the opening ceremonies dedicating the games to the Moon Goddess, whose crescent moon shared the same shape as the horns of the bulls.  
  
The bulls of Crete had changed little in the few thousand years the Minoan culture had been occupying the island - they were large, broad, heavy, fast, and fierce, known to the ancient world as aurochs. Essentially, they were slightly smaller than elephants, but with the shape of bulls. And large attitudes suitable for something that could probably take down a Titan in a one-on-one match.  
  
The sandy arena had one aurochs and at least a dozen leapers of various ages and both sexes. Among them was Martis' nephew Damon, showing off for the crowd.  
  
The bull was spurred on, charging toward a leaper; the leaper gracefully grabbed the horns, flipped up, somersaulted over the body as it charged under her, then landed delicately on her feet, her arms raised in victory.  
  
Damon himself was next - flipping over the horns, then twisting his body in mid-air and landing on the head of the bull, balancing delicately as it tried to shake him off. He kicked off the back of the beast, landing behind it.  
  
Another man took a horn by one hand and swung around, his other hand pushing off the bull's back, somersaulted, then landed in a handstand in the sand.  
  
A woman gracefully sailed over the aurochs' long body, pirouetting as she landed.  
  
Students and chaperones from Hogwarts had claimed a stand in the large arena, the sun beating down on their heads and shoulders. Britomartis and Severus sat a few rows behind the students, holding hands quietly and receiving strange stares for his dark, layered clothes.  
  
"Sure you're comfortable in that?"  
  
"The cooling salve is working, Spirals," he reminded her.  
  
"Sorry, force of habit. I'm used to seeing skin this time of year around here." She chuckled. "Although we still wear more clothes than we did in the past - I remember when the games were done in nothing but belts and loinclothes."  
  
"What did the women wear?"  
  
"Same thing," she answered tongue-in-cheek. "If you were over a B-cup, it hurt like Avernus."  
  
He was about to object to her teasing, then realized she was not kidding at all. Looking carefully into the crowd, it was obvious there was more skin on display than what they were used to in Great Britain. "If word gets back to the Weasley parents, we may be up for a reprimand."  
  
"I did warn all of them, Snips. Not my fault if they chose to ignore the warning."  
  
"Six-point font in invisible ink?"  
  
"Don't quibble, darling. And it was four-point. On the backside of the permission slip."  
  
Two rows down, Ron's shirt was saying the words 'You're cute!' (arrow pointing to Ms. Humphries) as he and Elizabeth hollered and encouraged anybody related to their teacher. Next to them, Hermione and Harry had their heads bent close and discussing something secret. Ginny was bouncing around and applauding whenever someone managed not to get impaled or stomped on.  
  
Down from them, Fred and George were sitting on each side of Ophelia (who was in her Priestess costume and displaying massive amounts of cleavage, causing the Weasley twins to go braindead every now and again) and all three were cheering on the leapers. Near them, Draco was holding an umbrella over his head to keep the sun off his fair skin.  
  
A row down, Glynis and Oliver were having a nice, quiet, mature conversation.  
  
"And don't ever touch me again! I still feel soiled!"  
  
"No problem, Ryper, you're too skinny to grab, anyway."  
  
"You're a brainless jock."  
  
"You're a control freak."  
  
She leaned close to his face. "You're nothing but a Quidditch-obsessed jock who is a miserable prat in all other fields - "  
  
He leaned into her face as well. "Is that a challenge, Glynis Ryper?"  
  
She pulled back, pursing her burgundy-red lips. "Challenge on what, Wood?"  
  
"That I can't do anything else but Quidditch. I can prove to you I can." He got up, his broom gripped firmly in his hand. "I'll go play with the bulls."  
  
"WHAT?!"  
  
Oliver sat astride his broom and took off into the arena.  
  
"Mr. Wood!" Britomartis' voice called. "What are you doing??"  
  
"You idiot!" Glynis added, leaning over the stand's wall. "Just like a wizard - grab your broomstick and go off to do something stupid!"  
  
"What's he doing??" Ron asked.  
  
"Committing suicide!"  
  
Oliver plowed down to the arena's field, looking for an opening.  
  
Damon Vox - who had just finished a stunt of doing a handstand on the back of the aurochs - flipped over the bull's back and landed on his feet. He spun around, seeing the teenager shooting off headfirst on a broom toward the charging bull.  
  
"Hey, you don't know what you're doing!"  
  
Oliver swung the broomstick up, performing three somersaults over the twelve foot span between the bull's horns and tail, then straightened his flight path and twirled in mid-air.  
  
The crowd cheered in a frenzy.  
  
"Severus, we have to stop him! He could be killed out there!"  
  
"I know, Martis!"  
  
"SHOW 'EM WHO'S BOSS, WOOD!" Elizabeth shouted.  
  
Glynis was perched on the wall. "Will you cut that out, Oliver?! You've proved you're full of testosterone, now get back here!"  
  
"Not yet!" he answered. "It's kinda fun!"  
  
Sweeping around in a great arc, he again charged for the aurochs; the bull swung a horn out, attempting to catch the flying teenager in the gut.  
  
Oliver ascended over its head, slapping a hand down and yelling "HONK!" as his fingers touched the nose.  
  
The mob was now whistling and yelling with approval. Oliver had an idiotic grin on his face.  
  
Glynis struggled with her wand (in the leg of her capris), losing her balance in the process and falling down to the sandy arena on her shoulder. She cried out in pain, clutching it.  
  
The bull spun around, saw the obvious non-leaper, and let out a snort as it dashed to her.  
  
"That's it!" Britomartis stated, climbing over seats. Severus was not far behind, his wand already drawn.  
  
Glynis was scooped up by Oliver just as the bull reached her, leaving its hot breath on her legs.  
  
The bull was promptly frozen in place by a quick wave from Snape's wand as Oliver's broom climbed over the wall with both passengers deposited safely in the stands.  
  
Glynis, her arms around Oliver's neck, pulled back and stared into his grinning face. She began walloping him. "YOU SMEGHEAD! Don't ever do that again! You scared the hell out of me!"  
  
"Well, I love you, too, Glynnie," he replied as she beat him about the head.  
  
"OWWWWWW!" she finally cried, holding her shoulder again.  
  
"Mr. Wood!" Britomartis stated. "Release Miss Ryper this instant! She landed on that shoulder - it's very likely sprang if she was still able to hit you." She gently touched the girl's shoulder and neck. "How's this feel, dear?"  
  
"Feel like I dropped from a roof onto sand, Professor," the girl gasped. "I don't think the collarbone's broken, but where my shoulder landed feels like it's been beaten with clubs." Her eyes widened. "Uh, my hip is also sore - I landed there, too."  
  
"Mr. Wood, help me take her back to the house. Great Mother, where's Poppy when we need her? Professor Snape, please look after the children."  
  
"Is Glynis going to be all right?" Elizabeth asked.  
  
"Don't know, yet. Behave yourselves. Hopefully it's only some bruising."  
  
Oliver picked up Glynis in his arms, carefully carrying her down the steps outside the arena while Britomartis led the way back to the Vox villa.  
  
"I'm really sorry, Glynnie," Oliver said as he dashed down the street. "I guess I was being too stupid for my own good."  
  
"Well, I didn't have to lean over the wall like that."  
  
"You both are in trouble," their teacher stated, not turning to look back at them. "I'll have to owl your parents about this. This is definitely part of the silliness list."  
  
"He didn't try to hurt me!" Glynis protested.  
  
"No, but he did endanger his own life and consequently yours. There is a reason tourists aren't allowed in the arena, Mr. Wood!"  
  
"I was just having some fun, Professor."  
  
"As a result - "  
  
"I challenged him," Glynis piped up.  
  
She opened the gates of the estate and flourished her hand inward. Oliver carried Glynis in, then she slammed them shut. "I thought you both were mature individuals, not irresponsible children who think they're immortal! I've had enough of your bickering and alpha-dominant displays - Mr. Wood, while Miss Ryper is recovering, you're to look after her."  
  
"Huh?" he asked.  
  
"You're fortunate I know some temple Priestesses who are healers that can take care of such injuries within hours." She opened the main doors and ushered them in. "Come on, to her room, Mr. Wood."  
  
Both teenagers avoided her face - her lips were scary enough with their angry pressed lines, they did not want to see her pull her sunglasses off to show her eyes. They probably glowed red or something.  
  
Britomartis opened the door and Oliver carried Glynis in, depositing her gently on her bed.  
  
Saphira rushed in after them. "I heard what happened - where is she?"  
  
"In the bed. What are you doing?"  
  
Saphira sat on the edge of the bed and softly touched Glynis' shoulder. "I'm a healer."  
  
"Never knew," Britomartis remarked off-handedly. "Mr. Wood, you go to your room until I get you."  
  
"Yes, ma'am," the boy replied and left.  
  
Saphira's hands began to glow a crystal blue, the light swirling off her skin and seeping into Glynis' shoulder and neck.  
  
Britomartis recognized the healing technique and explaining for the girl's benefit, "She's realigning the tissue back to normal and healing the broken veins, Miss Ryper. If I'm correct, this method also dissipates the blood pooling so your bruises won't be as bad."  
  
"Wow," Glynis commented. "Feels like cool water pouring over my shoulder." She paused. "What about my hip?"  
  
A few more minutes, and Glynis was given a sleeping tea to calm her down and allow her to rest.  
  
Britomartis closed the door after her mother exited the room. "Thank you, Saphira."  
  
"Most welcomed. I got scared when I heard about the accident."  
  
Britomartis exhaled loudly. "I was scared to death to be perfectly honest." Her mouth became neutral again. "Would you - "  
  
"Yes! I would have noticed if you were injured during bull leaping!" She sighed. "Thank the Great Mother you never took that up."  
  
Britomartis snorted. "I was the Champion two years running."  
  
Saphira paused. "Champion? I ... never knew."  
  
"It was the same years my sister Adonia came in second. Remember?"  
  
Saphira nodded dumbly. "Yes - we were going to throw a party to honor her, then for some reason she said she didn't want it. Something made her mad and she refused to speak to me for almost a month - " She gasped in realization. "Oh Great Mother! How could I have - "  
  
Britomartis softened her mouth. "The great and mighty Saphira Vox - thick as the mountains."  
  
"Britomartis, I'm sorry - "  
  
"Will you quit saying that? It's like listening to the same warped music spell over and over."  
  
The old woman leaned close, her face within inches of her daughter's. "You got your stubbornness from me, but that doesn't mean it'll work right back at me. You're just as proud as I am, Britomartis, that is why this will never be resolved." She pulled back, her hard blue eyes locked into the dead centers of the tinted lenses. "Given the chance, I would alter the past, less than a heartbeat and I'd be there in labor with you."  
  
"Bull - "  
  
"You know how to look into hearts - if you dare call my words a lie, then do so!"  
  
Britomartis said nothing.  
  
Saphira's shoulders slumped. "I can't erase your hate for me."  
  
"You haven't tried."  
  
"And you won't allow me."  
  
Both mother and daughter continued the stalemated silence.  
  
They were rescued with Oliver sticking his head outside his door and asking in a meek voice, "Is Glynnie all right?"  
  
Britomartis turned to her student to answer and Saphira left the hallway. 


	13. Chapter 13 – Ambrosia and the Potions Ma...

Chapter 13 – Ambrosia and the Potions Master  
  
Glynis was well enough to join her former classmates for the evening's feast at the palace later on. Oliver sat next to her looked after her welfare, including feeding her (she walloped him a few times in response, although she could not wipe the grin off her face).  
  
Interestingly enough, several of the Priestesses-in-training sat amid the group of Hogwarts students and discussed history and points of interest in exchange for stories about Great Britain. Draco seemed pleased to have three girls attending to his every whim, his father's smirk plastered across his young face, while Harry nervously accepted the attentions of seven girls who wanted to kiss the scar on his forehead for some reason. Ron (his shirt reading 'Hee-hee-hee!') was busy chowing down and telling about his adventures with Harry to any girl that listened.  
  
Hermione made snarling noises every time the girls got too friendly with either Harry or Ron (Hermione was unaware she was being jealous, but it was natural due to her Queen Bee-ism in relation to her two 'sidekicks', whom she subconsciously considered 'her' property). Ginny, on the other hand, was chatting with the girls about the symbolism in their culture. Elizabeth was staring obsessively at her teacher's nephews Damon and Dorian, both surrounded by many older teenage girls who had no problem doting on them.  
  
The twins were both busy wooing Ophelia, who seemed to be enjoying the attention more than she should. She offered them sips of her wine until her aunt caught them at a slightly buzzed stage - not quite different from their normal energy levels, save that they were now singing 'Mademoiselle from Armetieres' in very loud voices in the original French, which delighted Ophelia to no end.  
  
Dorian sidled up to his aunt, wine glass in hand, and remarked, "There's a rumor going about the family that you and the gentlemen-chaperone are intimately involved."  
  
She thunked her finger into the center of his forehead. "Nephew, that's no way to speak to your old widowed auntie."  
  
"You're only ten years older than me, 'auntie'," he reminded her. "And I think it's a great idea that you're joining the human race again. You were always happiest when you had a family to look after."  
  
Britomartis glanced up to see Severus talking with one of the High Priestesses, his face serious and cold, as if he were back at the school. "It's nothing like that, Dorian."  
  
"Then why were you sneaking into his room last night - "  
  
She yanked down on his tunic front, smiling sweetly. "I don't think it was anyone's business why I was visiting my best friend in the middle of the night."  
  
She released him and he stood up. "Martis," he said. "I know it's none of my business, but it's so plainly obvious it has to be pointed out to you because you're being thick - "  
  
"I don't care," she interrupted him. "It's none of anyone's business."  
  
He swallowed some wine, then grinned and said, "All right." He kissed her forehead and added, "Have fun."  
  
"I'm sure."  
  
Dorian got up and made his way back to his brother, whom was knocking the Weasley twins' heads together for trying to chat up their sister Ophelia. "Hey, siblings of mine, is everything ready?"  
  
Ophelia lifted up the bottle. "All ready to serve." She giggled excitedly. "Auntie Martis is going to have a great time!"  
  
"Don't give him too much!" Dorian warned her as she skittered across the room.  
  
Ophelia smiled prettily and approached the male chaperone, a glass in one hand and a wine bottle in the other. "Professor Snake?"  
  
"Snape," he automatically replied. "Ophelia Vox, correct?"  
  
"Yes, sorry about your name - thinking about ... ah, nevermind. You don't look like you're enjoying yourself much."  
  
"Parties were never my forte, Miss Vox." He smiled briefly. "I was usually the one tying shoelaces together when Martis and I were kids."  
  
Ophelia giggled, opening the bottle. "Well, enjoy the adults' portion now. Please, have a glass of Ambrosia." She poured some electric blue liquid into the glass.  
  
"Ambrosia?" he asked, accepting the glass. He studied it then commented, "It looks like pixie urine."  
  
"Rest assured it is a wine of Crete," she replied.  
  
He raised it and sniffed. "Smells rather fruity ... a bit of citrus overlaying the grapes - "  
  
"Oh, have some already!" she chided. "You don't have to be a Potions Master all the time. Besides, it won't hurt you."  
  
Snape eyed her, then sipped a small bit, tasting it on his tongue. He found the flavor a little tart - he swallowed - with an aftertaste of lime and coconut.  
  
"Not bad," he remarked, downing the rest.  
  
* * *  
  
Britomartis was getting tired, the lack of sleep from the night before finally catching up with her. She needed to herd her students back to the house and make sure they get rest for the next day of the festival.  
  
A commotion occurred on the other side of the room, several voices egging on someone to sing. She sighed, stretching. "Sounds like someone got into the Ambrosia." She glanced at the children, still hanging with the junior Priestesses and gabbing away.  
  
Suddenly, Snape's voice broke out in his best Master-of-the-Dungeons voice:  
  
"I'm too sexy for my love too sexy for my love Love's going to leave me ... "  
  
Britomartis jumped to her feet, Snookie-poo slipping to the floor. "Oh, Great Mother!"  
  
Severus Snape was up on a table, swaying like a drunken toadstool, half- done unbuttoning his suit coat.  
  
"I'm too sexy for my shirt too sexy for my shirt So sexy it hurts - "  
  
Several of the younger party members giggled. Martis grabbed the nearest one. "What happened??"  
  
"Looks like your buddy got into the Ambrosia, Lady Britomartis."  
  
"And I'm too sexy for Milan too sexy for Milan New York and Japan - "  
  
He tossed his coat into the crowd, which snatched out of the air by Elizabeth. "Professor Snape!" she shrieked. "This is no way for the Master of Slytherin House to behave!"  
  
He continued to dance (well, what could be called dancing with the way he was imitating a dog walking after neuter surgery) in his black trousers and white dress shirt.  
  
"And I'm too sexy for your party Too sexy for your party No way I'm disco dancing - "  
  
"I'm going to kill whomever got him tanked!" Britomartis snarled.  
  
He grabbed her arm and dragged her up on the table.  
  
"I'm a model you know what I mean And I do my little turn on the catwalk Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah I do my little turn on the catwalk - "  
  
"Severus, get a hold of yourself!" she ordered. "Miss Ryper - put that money away!"  
  
"I just wanted to put it in his waistband," Glynis stated.  
  
Oliver pulled her back down next to him, quieting her by enclosing his mouth over hers. She did not object.  
  
Britomartis was about to tell them to cool it, but Severus pulled her into another verse.  
  
"I'm too sexy for my car too sexy for my car Too sexy by far And I'm too sexy for my hat Too sexy for my hat what do you think about that - "  
  
"Severus, will you stop this - WHOA, BOY, watch the hands!"  
  
"Go aunt Martis!" an anonymous nephew yelled.  
  
"I'm a model you know what I mean And I do my little turn on the catwalk Yeah on the catwalk on the catwalk yeah I shake my little tush on the catwalk - "  
  
"Shake it, sir!"  
  
"Twenty points off Gryffindor, Frick and Frack!"  
  
"WHAT??"  
  
"Cuz I'm a model you know what I mean And I do my little turn on the catwalk Yeah on the catwalk yeah on the catwalk yeah I shake my little tush on the catwalk - "  
  
"I WANT A MEMORY CHARM!" the trio of Harry, Ron, and Hermione shouted.  
  
"I'm too sexy for my cat too sexy for my cat Poor pussy poor pussy cat I'm too sexy for my love too sexy for my love Love's going to leave me - "  
  
Severus Snape suddenly passed out into dreamland, falling into Britomartis' arms.  
  
Everyone politely applauded. Britomartis glared at the lot. "As soon as I find out who gave him Ambrosia, I'm going to knock some heads together!"  
  
He raised his head and looked into her face, his eyes completely dilated. "Spirals, take me to bed, please, I can't seem to find the floor."  
  
She hopped off the table with him and pulled him out of the room, then into the fresh air outside the palace. "Oh, Snips, you poor thing. You weren't supposed to have Ambrosia!"  
  
He began to sing in a drunken slur:  
  
"Show me the way to go home I'm tired and I want to go to bed I had a little drink about an hour ago to celebrate Spirals' ... uh, what rhymes with 'bed', sweetie?"  
  
"Snips!"  
  
He spread his arms out, grinning silly. "Whee! I'm flying!"  
  
"Like the eagle," she added, dragging him across the courtyard. "Come on, darling, you have to help me - I can't haul you home by myself."  
  
Severus felt for the ground, placed a foot down, then promptly collapsing like gelatin. "Oops. I swear to drunk I'm not God!"  
  
"Of course not," she replied, suppressing a smile amid her worry and anger. "Even Dionysis knew where the ground was."  
  
He softly crooned another song in a thick Islands accent:  
  
"She put de lime in de coconut, drink 'em bot' togeder she put de lime in de coconut, drink 'em bot' up She put de lime in de coconut, drink 'em bot' togeder put de lime in de coconut, call de doctor woke him up, an' say Doctor! Ain't der notin I can take, I say Doctor! to relieve dis belly ache, I say Doctor! ain't der notin I can take, I say Doctor! To relieve my belly ache?"  
  
"Yup, Ambrosia poisoning," she muttered. "Snips, I think it bears repeating - you're a lousy singer."  
  
He giggled, trying to climb the steps up to the Vox estate. "Aw, you jus' jealous, baby." He paused. "I can't see anything."  
  
"Your hair's in your face."  
  
"Oh." He giggled again. "Spirals-love, wanna bleach the Quidditch field with the words 'Marauders like inflatable sheep'?"  
  
"We're not at the school right now, honey."  
  
"Oh, too bad." He shrugged. "Oh, well - in my state I'd do it ba-a-a-dly." He burst into braying laughter.  
  
"If you weren't plastered, I'd hit you for making puns."  
  
"I really should be pun-ished," he snickered. "Fifty tongue-lashes maybe?"  
  
Britomartis rolled her eyes, towing him into the house. "You need to quiet down, Severus."  
  
"Why?"  
  
"We're in the house and people are sleeping."  
  
He thought about it, then yelled, "HEY, SAPHIRA! YEAH - I'M GONNA DEFILE YOUR SEXY-AS-HELL DAUGHTER IN TWO HUNDRED WAYS TONIGHT, SO DON'T BOTHER GETTING UP!"  
  
"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!"  
  
"NO! I don't care what the old biddy hears! She doesn't care one way or another!" He clutched the stairway bannister to balance himself. "Whoa - the stairs tried to run for it!"  
  
"Idiot," she muttered, draping part of him over her shoulder. "Come along, Professor Severely Sotted - we're going to get you a reserved seat for Worshipping the Porcelain Goddess during her morning services."  
  
"Yay!"  
  
At the top of the stairs, a fiery blue light appeared.  
  
Britomartis and Severus looked up to see Saphira Vox at the top of the staircase, a fully-functional battle-axe in her hands, and her body outlined in blue flames.  
  
"Get - away - from - my - daughter!" the old woman intoned.  
  
Severus pulled away from Britomartis and stood as straight as he could. "Ah, so mommy-dearest does care after all."  
  
"Saphira, what are you doing?" Britomartis asked.  
  
"I heard what that monster said - don't think I can lie in bed while such things go on under my roof!"  
  
"Saphira, he's pasted out of his gourd, he doesn't know what he's talking about - "  
  
He turned to her and stated, "Spirals, keep out of this." He swung his head around back to the mother, his finger pointing drunkenly at her. "YOU - have no say in what happens. You gave up that right a long time ago."  
  
Britomartis looked up. "Saphira, please, I need to get him into bed and try to counteract the effects of the Ambrosia. We can discuss your belated maternal instincts later."  
  
"I'm coming with you," she stated as she lowered the battle-axe into 'alert' stance. "I'm not going to let anything happen - men act weird on Ambrosia." The flames died around her body and she allowed them up the stairs. "It was involved with your conception."  
  
Britomartis dragged Severus up the stairs as he said, "Oh, I get it. You got wasted on the stuff and ended up swinging from the chandeliers all night."  
  
"No, Eugenius did. We had planned on twelve children, it seemed my Crone- aspect was approaching - "  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Britomartis explained, "Menopause." Saphira opened the door to Snape's room before her daughter added, "Are you telling me that Eugenius got drunk and raped you?"  
  
"Well, he did get drunk ... and we didn't think it would matter ... Then it turned out there was some Life-Force left and you were conceived."  
  
Britomartis dumped Severus into his bed face-first. "I was an ACCIDENT??"  
  
"Well if you were you planned for you would have been treated better, wouldn't you have?" the old woman snapped back.  
  
"She's got a point," Severus commented into the mattress as he raised his hand.  
  
Britomartis snorted, rolling him over and scooting him upright in the bed. "Fine, I was an unwanted pregnancy resulting from a drunken orgy. Could have had the decency to drop me off with the merpeople."  
  
"I considered it," Saphira replied soberly as she took Severus' shoes off. "I still have no idea why I kept you."  
  
"Well, I needed her," Severus added. "She kept me sane all through school - I would have either committed suicide or killed my tormentors if she hadn't been there."  
  
"You still ended up summoning Belial," Britomartis reminded him. "If Lily Evans hadn't conned James Potter into saving you, your father would have killed you. "  
  
"Well, you were gone and the Marauders had finally pushed me over the edge." He sat up and embraced her, holding her close. "Saphira, Martis was the only friend I had all through school who gave a damn about me. When I went home, I got beaten into unconsciousness by my father. It was the joke of the school - 'Snape is such a git, his own father hates him'. Well, I would have traded my eyeteeth to be simply ignored and neglected, parents like you would have been a Godsend. But Martis was too good for you; if you hadn't sent her away to Beauxbatons - "  
  
"Where?" Saphira asked in confusion.  
  
"The French academy," Britomartis reminded her. "When I was thirteen you pulled me out of Hogwarts and sent me to Beauxbatons."  
  
Saphira's blue eyes narrowed. "None of my children, no matter what status, would ever go to Beauxbatons. Every child of mine went to Hogwarts."  
  
"Well, I was shipped to Beauxbatons."  
  
"Britomartis, I never sent you away to France, I know that much."  
  
Severus looked up at Britomartis, his expression as close to sobriety as he could get in his state. "Spirals?"  
  
She squeezed his hand. "Get some sleep, Snips. I'm going to do a little investigating." She looked up at the old woman. "Saphira, I'm going to need your help." 


	14. Chapter 14 Snips and Spirals Asunder

Chapter 14 – Snips and Spirals Asunder  
  
It was a good thing that Severus Snape was a Potions Master. If he had truly wanted to become a multi-millionaire, he would have been able to do so by selling the patent of his 'brown bottle flu remedy' to the Muggle world. As soon as he had come out of his Ambrosia-induced fog, he had crawled over to his black bag and had whipped up a batch.  
  
"Down the hatch," he said to himself, tossing it back, then scowled.  
  
Needed sugar.  
  
And why the hell was he craving goat milk??  
  
A few minutes later he was sitting outside on the patio, watching the calm blue sea and the cloudless sky. He heard the sound of children at play, and soon saw the breaking of the waves by the dolphins and their human riders.  
  
Odd. He had been around children his whole life, and yet the thought of having any of his own had scarcely occurred to him. He had been so solitary, so damaged, and so alone as far back as his distant memory took him, that his isolation had nearly always been total. With Britomartis back in his life, though, who knows? Maybe they would retire here someday and watch their own grandchildren ride the dolphins -  
  
'Careful, old boy', he thought.  
  
'You be, oh, so careful, now.  
  
People enter your life all the time, and then they leave you.  
  
Just - like - that.'  
  
Sighing, he closed his eyes as the potion calmed his last vestiges of headache, and he thought of how Britomartis had been snatched from his life once before ...  
  
----------  
  
"Quite a commotion in the Common Room this morning, Snips," Lucius Malfoy remarked at breakfast, the tinge of a sneer on his handsome face. "Woke every soul in the place. What the devil happened?"  
  
Fifteen-year-old Severus Snape was more or less in a state of shock, and did not answer his older Slytherin 'brother' right away. "Britomartis got ... transferred to Beauxbatons."  
  
"Your little friend? Really?" sniffed Lucius, who had never liked the girl because she had seen right through his aristocratic facade and recognized him as the sneering and pompous git he really was. "How unfortunate for you. Really."  
  
Two of his roommates had awoke Sev in the middle of the night - or perhaps it was closer to dawn; it did not matter. Within a moment, the Slytherin Head of House Gallo Penderdandis was shaking his shoulder. "Get your robe on, Severus. We have a situation downstairs."  
  
Stunned out of a deep sleep, his feet ice cold from the stone floors (he had forgotten his slippers), Sev at first thought he heard someone crying.  
  
Martis?  
  
Crying?  
  
With a gasp, he flew down the stairs and into the Common Room where the Slytherin House Mother Rowena Price was attempting to comfort the distraught Britomartis Vox.  
  
"Spirals?"  
  
"Snips!" she sobbed, her arms raised up toward him, her sunglasses absent from her tear-streaked face. "SNIPS! Mother is sending me away!"  
  
Sev was in her arms in a heartbeat, his own arms around her and squeezing her tightly. "What? Spirals! Slow down! What's happened?"  
  
"My mother is transferring me to Beauxbatons! I can't believe it, Snips!"  
  
He felt his heart catch in his throat. "How did you find out?"  
  
"By owl." She pulled away, her lips pulled back in a snarl. "Nasty, hateful woman couldn't even let me know ahead of time! She really must hate me! She's sending me away from you as well!"  
  
The Slytherin Heads of House had shooed away any extraneous children from the Common Room, threatening them with beheading if they hung back and eavesdropped. Both adults hung back themselves, as both realized the friendship of one child had been the life's blood of the other. Despite Penderdandis' coolness to his students and Price's nonsensical manner, both were heartbroken as the two teenage friends cried.  
  
Sev clutched her tightly, running his hand over her ash blonde hair in comfort. "Don't worry. Nobody can keep Snips and Spirals apart, don't you know? Can't you make her change her mind?"  
  
"That's just what I'm going to do," she answered, pulling back again and wiping the tears harshly. "I'll go ahead and enroll, then I'll owl Mother and tell her what she can do with her snooty French academy. She'll have to transfer me back here, or I won't study anything! I'll - " Martis eyed him solemnly, sniffing. "I'll ... flunk out!"  
  
Sev, still clinging to her so tightly he probably left bruises, knew he had to console her, and not burden her mind further at the relief of his own. Anxiety over losing her was overwhelming his senses, making him hear nothing but a roaring in his ears and his vision blurring. "It'll be all right," he told her in a thin voice, trying to convince himself as well as her. "You'll see. She'll have to let you come back, then! In the meantime, owl me every day, won't you? I - I'll miss you so much. My best pal, my friend! Snips and Spirals Forever!"  
  
By this time, both young teenagers were sobbing, holding each other tightly and burying their faces in the other's necks.  
  
"Come along, Miss Vox," Miss Price said quietly, laying her hand on the girl's shoulder. "Mr. Snape, why don't you sit here until I come back? We can talk about it, all right?"  
  
Sev, shivering with the chill of the early morning and with a steady stream of tears rolling down his cheeks, nodded solemnly.  
  
If he had known that over twenty years would pass before he would hold his beloved Spirals in his arms again, he would have cried all the harder.  
  
* * *  
  
Severus Snape shivered, in spite of the warm breeze and Mediterranean sun. He realized he had been crying for some time. Quickly wiping his eyes, and darting looks to his right and left to ensure that no one had been around to see him, he stood and walked to the limestone balustrade.  
  
"Whatever deity or deities look over this House and my soul, please listen to my prayer. Please allow me to keep the gift of Britomartis Vox in my life. Please. Amen." 


	15. Chapter 15 Mystery

Chapter 15 - Mystery  
  
A moment later, after he had composed himself, the soft padding of Britomartis' sandals announced her arrival. "How you feeling, Severus?"  
  
He turned to look at her - her olive skin slightly darker due to the sun, her ash blonde hair even brighter, her turquoise sundress outlining her mature figure. Her sunglasses were poised low on her nose, exposing her moss gree eyes. "Almost better," he replied. "Remind me never to accept Ambrosia from your family."  
  
She smiled grimly, settling down in one of the chairs, placing a file on the table. "Got tanked on that stuff at my wedding feast - my relatives won't tell me what I did except say that the Ministry of Magic declared it classified. Although I understand the UN dropped the charges eventually."  
  
He chuckled. "That's my Spirals. By the way, any goat milk around? Have a bizarre craving for it."  
  
"Result of an Ambrosia hangover. Don't worry, the craving will subside in a few hours."  
  
He sat back down and became serious again. "I remember somewhere in the haze that your mother claimed she never sent you to Beauxbatons."  
  
"Yes," she confirmed. "I'm surprised they kept any type of file on me, but since money was involved, I suppose it had to be done - seven years' tuition paid to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry - incidentally, the money was somehow sent to Beauxbatons - and my grade reports from Beauxbatons forwarded home with the Hogwarts letterhead."  
  
Severus looked over the report cards. "I see you did try to flunk out like you promised."  
  
"Yes - unfortunately, they decided to put me in the 'gifted' program because they figured out I was using different learning methods. Finally decided to give up." She looked up. "I did owl you everyday for the rest of the semester."  
  
"I did, too, especially after all that crap I went through with the Marauders and my father."  
  
"I never got a note from you."  
  
"Same here. Someone's been intercepting the owls."  
  
She snorted, leaning back in her chair and folding her arms behind her head. "Great Mother, who would go to the trouble to break up a couple of friends and create a huge conspiracy to keep them apart? Who'd be interested?"  
  
Severus hung his head, his black hair curtaining his face. "I think I know who."  
  
Britomartis leaned forward, parting his hair. "Severus ... who?"  
  
"The Dark Lord."  
  
She pulled back. "Why?" After a second, she added. "Oh." She thought a little more. "Snips, did I really have that kind of power to change your life?"  
  
He continued to look at the limestone patio floor. "I was being groomed - literally groomed - to take my father's place. You didn't know that the reason I knew the Dark Arts was because I had been studying by my father's side all my young life, that I had unlimited access to the Restricted Section of the library to continue my studies at school, that the darkness had been part of my soul since before I was born so I could be Maledictis Snape's acolyte and servant of the Dark Lord. You offered me rebellion - salvation - against their wishes. They offered abuse and coldness - you offered love and warmth ... and I wanted to choose the warmth." He bared his teeth. "It would not be beyond them to take the obstacles of their wishes out of my way, including sending you somewhere else. I'm surprised they allowed you to live."  
  
"Then Voldemort made his mistake," Britomartis stated clinically. "In getting my family out of the way because I refused to surrender, I was brought back to you."  
  
He looked up. "Martis, the price was too much - "  
  
"We're not talking about checks and balances, Severus, we're talking about a twisted megalomaniac that wanted you in his stable of evil." She paused, looking at the file. "All of a sudden, my own problems seem quite petty."  
  
"No, still important," he insisted.  
  
"It leads back to him - " she stated, slamming a finger down on the file. "Voldemort's greed for power had screwed both of us! He pulled us apart, he used you, he had my family killed!"  
  
Her mouth opened and closed, overwhelmed with such thick waves of emotion she could not say anything. Severus got up, rounding the table and picking her up from her seat, holding her close against his chest with her head on his shoulder. He stroked her hair, giving her his strength by squeezing her fiercely.  
  
"He won't anymore, Martis," he said quietly. "It's just us now. Just us."  
  
They held each other as the morning sun sparkled off the ocean waves.  
  
* * *  
  
The Hogwarts students were asked to stage a Quidditch demonstration match in the arena. With two Seekers (Harry and Draco), two Beaters (the Weasley twins), and one Keeper (Oliver), the Chasers ended up being Elizabeth, Ron, Glynis, and Ginny (Hermione passed, explaining that she was allergic to having her face smashed in).  
  
The Seekers gave a demonstration of their tracking and flying prowess by chasing after enchanted balls of clay while helpful youths launched iron cannon balls at them to imitate the Bludgers. Next, the Weasley twins showed off for their Lady Ophelia by hitting back these same cannon balls with their practice clubs.  
  
The game was pulled together by having the Seekers compete against each other and the Chasers attempting to get past the Keeper's defenses with a leather Quaffle ball, all the while the Beaters keeping everyone safe from the random cannon ball Bludgers.  
  
One 'Bludger' was hit out of the way by a Weasley, shooting straight for the section where the Vox family was located - Britomartis stood up and slammed the 'Bludger' out of the stands with one of the Weasleys' spare clubs in a backhand hit. The cannon ball sailed right through a hoop and slammed into the sandy arena, digging a crater three feet across.  
  
Oliver, Fred, and George paused long enough to shriek a cheer toward their teacher, whom had never seen her perform her famous Bludger Backbeat play.  
  
"Haven't seen that in twenty years, Spirals," Severus commented as she sat back down.  
  
"Amazing how automatically it came back to me," she replied. She linked her hand in his discreetly. "The children all asked for memory charms concerning your activities from last night."  
  
Severus groaned. "What did I do?"  
  
"When did you ever hear the song 'I'm Too Sexy'?"  
  
"Never heard of it."  
  
"Interesting."  
  
Draco Malfoy soared across the arena, chasing after the imitation Snitch, when one of the children he had offended recently (still called the natives 'Cretin') tossed a furry snake in his flight path. The snake wrapped itself like a coil around his head, cutting off his sight and hearing.  
  
Draco lost control of his broom and began to zigzag toward the ground as one hand went to attempting to peel the snake from his head.  
  
Britomartis was already up and going down to the arena just as he hit the ground.  
  
Incensed more than hurt, he began to try to pull the snake off, which only responded with a loud 'BOING' with every tug he gave.  
  
"Mr. Malfoy, calm down - it's only a Boingie."  
  
His mouth came free of a coil of snake flesh: "GET THIS BLOODY STUPID THING OFF ME!"  
  
"Stuggling like that will only make them cling longer, Draco," Britomartis stated as she tried to catch him in her arms. "They're more terrified than you are, that's why they're wrapped around you."  
  
"THEY'RE terrified? What about ME?? I'm the one with the hairy serpent around my head!"  
  
He swung around and rammed the snake headfirst into a wall - he only succeeded in bouncing back with a booming 'BOING'.  
  
Britomartis suppressed the smile as she finally landed him in a tackle and held him still. "Ophelia! Help peel the Boingie off Mr. Malfoy's head, dear."  
  
Draco stopped struggling long enough for Ophelia to slowly uncoil the furry snake from around his head; incidently, it also gave him opportunity to feel his teacher's body pressed into his.  
  
"Tch, tch," the niece commented. "Like most young men his age, he's getting in trouble with a hairy snake - "  
  
"Ophelia," Britomartis warned her.  
  
"Sorry, Auntie," she replied. "There, you're free from the poor, scared, helpless Boingie." She nuzzled her nose against the snake's nose as she held it up to her face and made cooing noises. "Aw, it's only a baby one, too!"  
  
"Bloody thing tried to kill me," Draco muttered, brushing his hair back. "I need to go lie down, Professor Vox."  
  
"As well you should," she agreed as she released him. "Ophelia? Could you escort Mr. Malfoy back to the villa?"  
  
"Of course." She released the Boingie as Britomartis got up and went back to the stands. "Well, Malfoy, just you and me, brother."  
  
He sneered slightly, then a cool smile crossed his face. "Miss Ophelia, my classmates Harry and Ron mentioned that you three explored a ruin the other day."  
  
"Yes," she replied as she reached for his hand and escorted him. "What about it?"  
  
"I'd like to see it myself, if you don't mind. I'm still gathering information for my own research paper."  
  
"Oh, no problem at all. Are you well enough to go climbing into caves, though?"  
  
"The fall wasn't that bad." He held up his broom. "We can go by air."  
  
Ophelia released his hand and grinned. "All right. Let me get Gaea ready."  
  
Draco watched the older teenage girl trot off, and smirked to himself. 


	16. Chapter 16 A Gift for the Dark Lord

Chapter 16 – A Gift for the Dark Lord  
  
They had touched down in front of the heavily-vegetated cave entrance, Draco cautiously peering into the darkness. He pulled his wand out and leaned his broomstick against the lip of the cave.  
  
"Think we'll find something useful in here?" he asked as Ophelia lead the way.  
  
"Most certainly."  
  
Thrusting the wand toward her, he whispered, "Petrificus Totalus."  
  
Ophelia froze, falling forward onto the floor of the cave.  
  
Draco stepped over her and used his wand to brush her blue-black hair from her face. "'Good night, Lady Ophelia; good night, sweet lady; good night, good night'."  
  
He stood up and entered the cave, calling out "Lumos." His wand lit up in response.  
  
Behind him, a large shadow of blackness appeared, shifting, pulling apart, materializing into four large cloak-like beings and a tall imposing figure with the Dark Mark on his arm.  
  
"Now," Draco said in a voice used to such dark dealings. "Where is that Labrys?"  
  
Within the dark cave, a guardian felt the intent, and a silent alarm was sent out.  
  
* * *  
  
Britomartis was surprised to find a Priestess leaning close to her in the stands during the Bull Leaping Games.  
  
"My Lady," the Priestess breathed in her ear. "Something is happening at the Cave of Psyche."  
  
Britomartis felt her heart stop beating. "The Chimaera?"  
  
"Had sensed an intent. Your orders?"  
  
"I'll be there - get a Granian ready for me."  
  
The Priestess dashed off and Britomartis turned to her companion. "Darling, I have to take care of some business in relation to the Labrys - "  
  
"I'm going with you," Severus Snape stated matter-of-factly.  
  
"No, you're not, you're staying here with the students."  
  
He gripped her arm, making her feel the strength in his slender fingers. "Britomartis Vox, there's only one person who wants that Labrys - we both go in."  
  
She nodded her head a quarter of an inch. "As you wish."  
  
Britomartis leaned forward, told Glynis and Oliver to look after the others, then both teachers left the arena and headed toward the temple.  
  
"When was the alarm sent?" she asked as she entered the High Priestesses' council chambers.  
  
"Nearly five minutes ago, Lady Britomartis," one of the High Priestesses answered. "Ophelia is also missing."  
  
Britomartis felt the blood drain from her limbs, knowing who Ophelia was last with. "I'm going in to see what's going on - I'm taking Professor Snape with me; if there are any of you who can join me, I need your help, this may be more dangerous than simply quieting the Chimaera down."  
  
"I'm going," an old woman's voice proclaimed.  
  
Silence fell over the group as Saphira Vox pushed her way through.  
  
"But Lady Saphira - " one of the Priestesses objected.  
  
"My daughter shouldn't have to do our jobs - "  
  
Britomartis narrowed her eyes at her mother. "Saphira, I was a High Priestess for several years before my family was killed - it was for that reason they were murdered, because I had guarded the Labrys that night."  
  
Saphira blinked. "What the AVERNUS??" she shrieked. "I would have known if you were a High Priestess!!" She turned to one of the other Priestesses. "Celena - "  
  
"Lady Saphira," the Priestess explained. "There was a rift in the priestesshood when you both were on the council - many knew you hated your daughter - "  
  
"I never hated her and why the Avernus did I not notice her at all??" Her white brows lowered over her eyes, then she added, "My mind's been tampered with. Celena, contact my son Klemendis and have him ready to perform a mind scanning when we return - this whole thing smells odd."  
  
"We've no time for this," Britomartis reminded her. "We're going."  
  
Saphira nodded her head, her jaw muscles standing out. "We'll figure it out later - we have the Labrys to protect and you aren't doing it by yourself this time."  
  
A moment later a half dozen armed Priestesses followed Saphira, Britomartis, and Severus out of the temple.  
  
* * *  
  
Draco and his shadowy minions searched the cave inch by inch, endevouring to find a nook or crack that could hide a five-foot-tall golden double-axe.  
  
His lit wand casted a glint against a wall; Draco made his way across the damp cave floor and into a small alcove of rock. Before him, leaning against the wall and gleaming, was the Golden Labrys of Transformation and Rebirth.  
  
Draco ran his fingers over the edges and across the blades, his blurred reflection grinning back at him. "The Dark Lord will be pleased with the recovery of the Labrys at last."  
  
The reflection was suddenly filled with the distorted face of a lion - a lion with large teeth and dripping siliva and breathing down the back of his thin neck.  
  
Draco slowly turned, swallowing. Funny how his swallow sounded so loud in the cave.  
  
The lion's head gazed down at him in challenge, while the goat's head behind that chewed in an aggravated manner, and the scaled dragon's tail whipped around in a perturbed state.  
  
Draco muttered an obscenity under his breath.  
  
The Chimaera answered with an ear-splitting roar that made his hair blow back from his face.  
  
ATTACK!" he shrieked in return.  
  
The four large cloak-like shadows began to swarm over the mythical beast.  
  
* * *  
  
The group of Granian winged-horses touched down outside the gaping hole of the cave.  
  
"There's Ophelia's Abraxan," a Priestess remarked as they slid off their mounts. She patted the teenager's winged-horse.  
  
"Inside," Britomartis stated. "Have weapons at the ready. If you see a blonde child, leave him to me - if there is anything else, be cautious and kill first chance you get. We are dealing with beings who practice the Dark Arts." She lead the way in, Severus following right behind, their wands drawn and ready. Behind them Saphira and the half dozen Priestesses held functional double-axes, crossbows, and short swords with cellophane tape-covered concave shields.  
  
A little known fact: cellophane tape acted as a defense against magical attacks directed at the holder of the shield. This little, inconspicuous Muggle invention was able to bounce spells back at the caster, no matter how powerful the spell seemed to be. It became the secret weapon of Wizards going into battle against users of the Dark Arts.  
  
The noises at the back of the cave were mixtures of snarls and howls, echoing against the rock.  
  
"It's your niece," Severus said as he crouched down to examine the prone form of the girl near the entrance of the cave. "Looks like a 'Petrificus Totalus' ... " He raised his wand. "Finite Incantatum."  
  
Ophelia rolled over, looking up into the face of her aunt's companion. "I'm really, really sorry I got you drunk last night!"  
  
"Forget about it. What happened?"  
  
"Draco Malfoy asked me to take him to the cave, then I blacked out, then you guys came." She paused, listening. "Oh, Great Mother!"  
  
A Priestess helped her up. "Ophelia, go outside and wait for us, we have work to do."  
  
"Yes, my Lady."  
  
Ophelia dashed out of the cave.  
  
Britomartis continued on, feeling her heart beating like a triphammer. The air held the same decay and dread the night she had escaped the pack of Death Eaters with the Labrys. Now she was returning, defending this same Labrys, and at the expense of what? The loss of a half-dozen High Priestesses, her estranged mother, and her best friend?  
  
"All of you go back," she said.  
  
"No, Lady Britomartis."  
  
"I order you back - this is my battle." The Chimaera appeared, staggering around as several dark patches covered its body. The Chimaera's lion mouth was covered, leaving the goathead moaning pitiously. "What the - "  
  
"Lethifold," Severus answered. "The Living Shroud - four of them. Enchanted by Dark Arts; they would not be normally attack an awake target." He raised his wand and shouted, "PATRONUS!"  
  
A thin silvery mist manifested, then solidified into a large black raven which zoomed in on the dark patches over the Chimaera and began pecking at them. The Lethifolds shuddered, releasing the half-ingested but still fighting Chimaera. The beast fell to the floor of the cave, groaning and gasping.  
  
Arrows enchanted with ancient purification magic rained down on the billowing black cloaks of the Living Shrouds, burning them them up and curling them into ashes.  
  
Priestesses fell to the ground, the scent of the burning creatures choking their lungs as they coughed and wheezed. Britomartis and Severus covered their mouths, their eyes watering from the fumes.  
  
"Look out!" Saphira coughed, swinging her double-axe.  
  
Britomartis pulled Severus down just as Saphira's labrys blade made contact with the neck of a shadowy figure.  
  
The head flew across the cavern, slamming against a wall. The body swayed, then collapsed forward between Britomartis and Severus, the wand clattering out of its hand. Severus immediately turned over the left arm of the unknown man and noted the Dark Mark standing out on the corpse's olive skin.  
  
"Death Eater," he spat. He crawled over to Saphira's collapsed form. "Martis, get Malfoy, I'll stay here; you mother's out cold from the toxins and exertion."  
  
Britomartis nodded silently, now feeling the memories screaming back into her soul - fire in the temple, dark figures surrounding her, hands reaching out and gripping her limbs, hands attempting to tear the Labrys from her grip, running through the humid night, her arms aching from the heavy artifact, her home in flames, the mangled bodies of her children on the lawn and the disemboweled figure of her husband reaching for her as she cradled him in her arms, feeling the Life-Force leave his body ...  
  
"My Lady," a Priestess coughed. "Here, take my shield."  
  
She got up and strode to the back of the cave, her wand clutched tightly in her hand and the shield held before her.  
  
Draco Malfoy appeared, apparently having dragged the Labrys across the rocky floor and out to the main caverns. He gazed at her, his eyes glowing white and his body tinged with a faint current. "Britomartis Vox ... " he snarled. "Come to defend the Golden Labrys again? What price will you pay this time? Every single child within your family? Your own life? Or the life of your lover?"  
  
Britomartis set her jaw. "Draco Malfoy, stop this foolishness at once - "  
  
"Right and wrong," Draco commented, leaning against the Labrys' hilt and pointing his wand at her. "As always. Even as a child, the Dark Lord had coveted you. Why do you think he had your own mother ignore your existance? He had to recruit his servants from somewhere, didn't he? You would have been more pliable to him whims, after all ... just ... like ... Snape." Draco sneered, looking exactly like his father. "Of course, from what I gathered, the Dark Lord did not count on your siblings raising you - of you being drawn to the Light despite everything. And of course you had to be sent away from Snape so you wouldn't interfer with his own descent into Darkness." He stretched his wand out. "You and the Potters nearly destroyed the Dark Lord's works - he shall have his revenge. With his own body he will finish the destruction of their son Harry Potter and claim his rightful place as the Dark Lord of Earth."  
  
"Great Mother, you are more of a monster than I thought." Britomartis dropped her wand into the folds of her dress. "Clever of you, Lucy, to take over your son's body - I suspected you of being Voldemort's minion when you exposed Severus as a Death Eater. How convenient that your son was going on a field trip with the one teacher who knew where the Labrys of Rebirth was located, so that you may acquire it for your master like a dog fetching slippers." She lowered her face, the sunglasses slipping down her nose and exposing glowing green eyes. "Ingenius plot, Lucy."  
  
"Thank you, Britomartis," Draco answered. "CRUCIO!"  
  
The Cruciatus Curse ... Britomartis heard and even felt the wind being sucked out of the space between her and Draco's wand controlled by Lucius Malfoy.  
  
Desperately, she held up the cellophane tape covered shield, the concave side pointing back at him -  
  
The spell hit the tape, slamming her back to the floor, but not before bouncing back and hitting the body of Draco Malfoy.  
  
He dropped to the floor, shrieking and writhing with pain.  
  
Britomartis got up, picking up the screeching boy. "I'll give you a minute to fully leave his body, Lucius, before I reach in with the Earth Magic and yank your ass out and into the cave where a very pissed off Chimaera is ready to shred you." She leaned close to stare into the still glowing white eyes. "And if I EVER find you possessing your son again, I will personally send the Furies down on you and have you EATEN ALIVE! Do I make myself clear?!"  
  
The eyes stopped glowing, leaving the twitching boy in her arms. Laying her hand over his forehead, she sang a low note, tearing away the curse from Draco's soul.  
  
At last, the boy stopped shaking in her arms, now only moaning in relief. "I'm sorry, Mr. Malfoy, but you weren't yourself." His eyes remained closed as he tucked his arms close and rolled up against her body, barely conscious of anything around him. She brushed his blonde hair out of his face. "Poor darling."  
  
* * *  
  
The toxins in the air had been cleared out, the Priestesses recovering enough to get up.  
  
"The Chimaera is too far gone," a Priestess reported. "She'll have to be put down."  
  
Another Priestess nodded. "Help me."  
  
Britomartis appeared from the back of the cave, carrying Draco like an infant.  
  
"Martis?" Severus called.  
  
"All is better, although we have a lot to talk about. Mr. Malfoy is recovering from being possessed by his father. How's Mother?"  
  
"Also recovering." He pushed her sunglasses back up on her face.  
  
"Lady Britomartis," an older Priestess stated. "We must decide on a permanent solution concerning the Golden Labrys."  
  
Britomartis turned to her. "You all decide what to do with it - it's brought me nothing but death and trouble. Severus, we need to take our student and my mother back home." 


	17. Chapter 17 Hail and Farewell

Chapter 17 - Hail and Farewell  
  
The other students had no idea what had occurred in the cave or with Draco Malfoy. The concensus was that the crash from earlier had scrambled his brains. Oliver gladly helped move Draco's trunks out of their room and into the sick room while Draco recovered. The rest of the students went to the feast that night in high spirits, offering toasts to the Boingie that attacked his face.  
  
Saphira Vox had sent for one of her sons, a healer of the psyche, to determine to what extent her mind had been touched.  
  
It took well into the night to explore over seventy years of memory passages and layers of time. At last Klemendis sent for Britomartis, and she entered her mother's rooms, expecting nothing.  
  
Saphira lay quietly on the bed, her eyes closed, but quite awake. "What have you found, my son?"  
  
The man brushed back his brown sugar-colored hair. "Well, Mother, I've explored your mind and discovered there had indeed been a block put in almost thirty-four years ago. Rather ingenious block, actually, surrounded by layers of indifference and 'social blindness'."  
  
"Social blindness?" Britomartis repeated.  
  
"Sure. The ability to not notice something that doesn't affect you. It has some long, boring, stuffy, polysyllable name that nobody's interested in knowing, so that's the short of it. Anyway, Mother's 'blindness' was directed toward you, and had only been penetrated around six years ago when ... you know ... "  
  
"When my family was killed," Britomartis supplied.  
  
"Those outside of my 'block' were affected, and since you were connected to them, I noticed what had happened," Saphira said softly from her bed.  
  
"I suspect the trauma broke down the spell."  
  
"Spell?" Britomartis repeated.  
  
Klemendis blinked. "Of course, baby sister. From what I can gather it's a Wizard's spell, something powerful enough to ensnare itself into the psyche and suggest that you were a minor detail in Mother's mind."  
  
"An Imperius Curse." Britomartis gazed at her mother. "And if what Lucius Malfoy said was true, then I really was being recruited by Voldemort." An expression of horror crossed her face. "Great Mother - all of us at Slytherin - we were all - "  
  
Her elder brother's brows knotted. "Slytherin? But, Martis, all of us Vox kids were put in Ravenclaw - "  
  
"Yes! Adonia mentioned it was odd the Sorting Hat had put me in Slytherin ... but now it makes sense ... from what Severus told me, the group that we had run around with was connected with Death Eaters one way or another, mostly suspected, but nonetheless ... " Britomartis embraced her brother in a tight hug. "Thank the Mother you and the rest of the kids raised me - I would have been a servant of Voldemort if I had been left to Mother's curse-influence." She pulled away, her hands shaking. "Great Mother, Severus was right - I proved to be useless and was removed because of my influence on him ... "  
  
"Sis?" Klemendis ventured.  
  
She looked up. "Everything's making sense for the first time in my life and I'm quite relieved, that's all." She knelt next to her Mother's bed and caressed the old woman's wrinkled dark cheek. "It wasn't your fault. It wasn't my fault."  
  
Saphira opened her blue eyes, reaching a gnarled hand over to touch her daughter's cheek. "I've carried a hate for myself for years, once the block had been punctured, that I had somehow convinced myself that my youngest - my baby - simply did not matter." Her mouth became a neutral line, her old eyes drooping at the sides. "Nothing can change the past, my daughter, I have no excuse." Tears streamed down the crow's feet of her eyes. "Great Mother, if I ever come across a Death Eater or Voldemort himself, I will tear their heads off for what they made me do to you and for what they did to the children!"  
  
"Same here," Klemendis added. "Once the entire family hears about this, there won't be a Death Eater that could get within a hundred miles of Crete without one of us calling upon the Furies."  
  
Saphira began sobbing. "Oh, my child, I'm so, so sorry ... "  
  
"Put Mother on suicide watch," Britomartis told her brother quietly. "She's unstable right now, and the guilt may push her over the edge."  
  
"I know." Klemendis leaned over the Matriarch's bed. "Mother, I'm going to do a brain scanning of Father to see how he had been affected. I'll send in one of the girls to look after you." He nodded to his youngest sister and left the room.  
  
"Mother, please stop," Britomartis said. "I know how much this hurts. Hell, it eats me up now, knowing - intellectually - that it wasn't your fault. There's still a huge chunk that isn't expecting anything to come of this."  
  
Saphira turned her head, sitting up and pulling her daughter closer. "If you've the patience and the willingness, I want to start over again. Now that the spell had been broken up completely, I can say without hesitation that I am fiercely proud of you, that I admire your strength, and that I love you with all my heart, my Britomartis. You're my baby, always will be my baby, and I want nothing more than to be able to love you as my baby. I love you, my child, please let me be in your life."  
  
Despite the back of her mind screaming for her to walk out, Britomartis found herself shedding tears while her mother held her as both cried for the loss of thirty-four years of life. Eventually, Saphira fell asleep from emotional exhaustion and Britomartis left her mother's room as Ophelia came in to look after the Vox Matriarch.  
  
Britomartis shut the door and wandered down the hall and to one of the balconies looking out over the ocean. Finding Severus leaning against the stone railing, she joined him.  
  
"How is she?"  
  
Britomartis told him.  
  
He brushed his hair from his face. "And you?"  
  
"I don't know yet. To be suddenly presented with a real mother after thirty-three years is confusing."  
  
Severus drew an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, his lips resting against her temple. "Be with her, Martis. You've wanted this ever since I've known you."  
  
"Yes." She snaked her arms around his waist and lay her head against his shoulder, watching the dolphins play in the moonlight.  
  
* * *  
  
Elizabeth Humphries noted her roommate was missing the next morning.  
  
She had expected this, actually, since it seems Glynis and Oliver were getting more and more involved in other's doings to the point in which they were checking each other's teeth with their tongues.  
  
Elizabeth sighed as she picked up her towel and bath supplies. True, she was fourteen, but sometimes people's hormones really mystified her. All this time, Glynis had been bickering with and bad-mouthing the Gryffies' Quidditch Captain, and then she goes off and sucks face with him. Really, really weird. It should be her instead.  
  
A loud 'ZARK!' noise exploded in the hall.  
  
She opened up the door to the hallway and noted Glynis' smoking form laying stiffly in front of Oliver's door. Her face was covered with soot and her hair was standing on end.  
  
"Tch, tch," Elizabeth commented. "Found out that the same spells between the boys and the girls dorms still work out here?"  
  
Glynis growled. "Help me up, Lizard, before the Professors find me like this."  
  
Elizabeth giggled and helped the graduate up. "Geez, you smell like fried bacon."  
  
"Oh, shut up, or I'll tell Fred you've got the hots for him."  
  
Oliver poked his head out, surveyed the damage, then whispered, "Damn! Snape's got our number!"  
  
Elizabeth smirked. "Well, since she's out of commission, stud-monkey, is it my turn?"  
  
"In your dreams, Humphries!"  
  
"Indeed it is," she answered. Oliver slammed the door and she giggled as she dragged Glynis into the bathing room.  
  
"Mine, Lizard-breath," Glynis snarled.  
  
* * *  
  
Britomartis was dabbing a washcloth over Draco's forehead when his eyes fluttered open in the bright morning light in the sick room.  
  
"Welcome back, Mr. Malfoy," she said. "Do you remember what happened last?"  
  
Draco squeezed his eyes shut, yawned, opened his eyes again, then grimaced. "Feels like something died in my mouth, ma'am. Did those Weasley whelps have anything to do with it?"  
  
"No, they haven't touched you. What do you remember last?"  
  
"Someone throwing a snake in my face. I think I crashed."  
  
Britomartis sliently breathed a sigh of relief. The boy's father evidently had him some place else during the possession, completely unaware of what was going on. "You did indeed have a nasty crash. Fortunately, it was only a concussion which knocked you out for the night."  
  
"I missed the feast? Bugger!"  
  
"There's another one tonight, young sir," she assured him. "However, you're still pretty weak from your injuries, so I suggest you take it easy today."  
  
"Nonsense, old woman, I can handle it!"  
  
He struggled to sit up until she pushed him backward with her fingertip to his forehead. "You are getting sleepy."  
  
"Cut the hypno-trancer-wannabe act, Vox."  
  
Britomartis smiled. "Good to have you back, Mr. Malfoy."  
  
* * *  
  
The last week of the trip went by quietly as the students continued their studies of the island for their research papers. Hermione was now fluent in both ancient and modern Minoan and was frequenting the temples with Elizabeth on a daily basis.  
  
In fact, a scandal had almost blown up in the Professor's face when Hermione and Elizabeth showed up at the Vox villa wearing the Priestess costumes ... from the Bronze Age.  
  
Elizabeth proudly paraded around in the ancient Minoan Snake Priestess costume of the ochre red mutli-tiered skirt with half-moon gold apron and tight-fitting open bodice, her blue-streaked blonde hair plaited in the traditional braids and wearing the wide-brim cap of a High Priestess. Hermione was more subdued with her own displays, instead holding one of Ophelia's snakes and reciting the Snake Goddess Charge in ancient Minoan.  
  
Britomartis was the first to object: "GET OUT OF THOSE COSTUMES - NOW!"  
  
Elizabeth ignored the Weasley males falling over themselves and Harry Potter discreetly turning around and politely burying his nose in a corner. "But Professor, I thought you would appreciate us immersing ourselves in the culture - "  
  
"THAT'S NOT THE POINT - OUT OF THOSE!"  
  
Hermione elbowed Elizabeth's forearm and pointed to her own chest. The Slytherin girl held up her female assets and added, "Oh, I get it, it's because our - "  
  
"NO - IT'S BECAUSE YOU AREN'T PRIESTESSES!" She turned on the Weasley boys. "All of you - close your mouths, you're drooling on your shoes! Fred - George - if you two say a word, I will send you home faster than a Cornish Pixie on amphetamines!"  
  
Draco, witnessing the whole thing, remarked, "Father would be interested to know - "  
  
She turned on him with, "And you, young Malfoy, will not say a word, either, or you will have an increase of ten-thousand words on your paper." She turned back around, seeing Hermione and Elizabeth giggling hysterically to themselves like the miscreants they were as they ran up the stairs to the rooms.  
  
Britomartis exhaled loudly, rubbing her temples. And here she was worried if Ophelia was going to do this sort of thing at her British students; she never expected serious and proper Hermione Granger of all people to walk around without her chest covered!  
  
First time for everything.  
  
* * *  
  
The last day of the Crete trip was upon the students and Professors of Hogwarts.  
  
Britomartis and Severus were having a quiet breakfast on the patio as the students loaded their luggage onto the boat back to England.  
  
"Any word from Malfoy?" he asked.  
  
"One owled message - something to the effect of he'll be watching us."  
  
Severus chuckled. "Hope he's entertained. We're rather boring people."  
  
"Speak for yourself, darling." She slathered honey all over a chunk of bread. "Mother is getting better." She nibbled at the bread as a stream of honey dribbled down her fingers.  
  
"Yes, I noticed you didn't wallop her during dinner last night," he remarked as he stared at her honey-covered hand. "Of course, having one's meat cut at your age by their mother is rather humiliating."  
  
She made a face at him. "Seperation anxiety's already kicked in, though. I told her I'd owl her everyday, so that should placate her for a little while." More honey dripped down her hand as she ate. "The Priestess Council finally decided on what to do with the Labrys."  
  
"What?"  
  
"Damned if they tell me. I don't want anything more to do with it." She put the bread down.  
  
Severus reached across the table and picked her hand up, darting his tongue out to lick the honey from her fingers. His black eyes gazed steadily at her face as the sunglasses slipped down one ear and exposed her wide green eyes.  
  
"Snips ... " she squealed.  
  
He released her hand, smirking in a smarmy manner. "Don't squeal, it's undignified."  
  
Britomartis broke into giggles. "Don't do it unless you mean it, sweets." Her face became solemn, then she got up and grabbed his arm. "Come along."  
  
"Where are we going?" he asked as he grabbed a handful of olives.  
  
After a few moments both entered the Vox family shrine, Britomartis pulling Severus up to her family's nook.  
  
"Dion, children ... I'm joining the human race again," she stated. "I've held onto you too tightly, hiding behind what happened to not have to live on." She squeezed Severus' hand. "I want to live now - "  
  
Severus leaned close to her. "Don't make it a rant, Spirals."  
  
She chucked his large nose. "You ruined the moment!" She turned back to the shrine. "Dion, Alia, Sybil, Eneas, Vasilis - I love you, darlings. I always have and always will. Don't worry, Mama's not going to be alone now - remember I told you about my friend Snips? We're back together again. I'll be all right now. He's a good man, despite all the crude he's been through. I think you would have liked him, Dion. Children, I love you."  
  
Severus drew an arm around her shoulders. "Martis, you're crying - "  
  
"Happiness, Snips. Come on, we have to get back."  
  
* * *  
  
The sail and train rides were uneventuful, the group finally making their way to the London station to be received by parents.  
  
Molly and Arthur Weasley happily enclosing all four Weasley children in their arms, immediately asking if there were any mercenaries or enraged fathers after them (the boys quietly telling their father that Ophelia broke their hearts when she informed them she preferred much older men with long dark hair).  
  
Narcissa Malfoy came to pick up Draco, the aristocratic mother exchanging a look with Britomartis - not threatening, yet not gratitude. Very likely miffed that she could not see Vox's eyes even after twenty years. She doted on her son, not saying a word to the Professors and leaving as soon as his luggage had been gathered.  
  
The Grangers picked up Hermione - slightly surprised by the double-axe shirt she wore and spiral earrings dangling from her ears. They checked her teeth, then spoke with Professor Vox a little about Hermione's behavior on the trip. Britomartis conveniently did not mention the fact their daughter paraded around with her chest exposed - British Muggles really would not understand old Minoan culture.  
  
The Woods and Rypers came to pick up their teenagers - the mothers of Oliver and Glynis exchanging fretful looks as the two teenagers kissed each other in a most indecent manner. Mrs. Wood did ask what had happened, and Professor Vox answered that Mediterranean islands have that effect on people. Mrs. Ryper seemed to understand after the vague explanation.  
  
The Humphries also gathered up Elizabeth - Mr. Humphries a well-mannered and manicured man with white hair and a gap in his teeth, and Mrs. Humphries a younger lady with a large smile and a thick Somerset accent. Both invited the Professors over for tea at their home Millstone Manor, of which Britomartis and Severus accepted politely.  
  
Harry Potter called a car to pick him up to take him to his aunt's home in Surrey, then the Weasleys offered him a ride ... their conversations died in the distance, leaving Professors Britomartis Vox and Severus Snape between platforms nine and ten.  
  
Both held a suitcase, their other hands gripped together.  
  
"Need a vacation from the vacation," Britomartis sighed. "I'm exhausted."  
  
"Then back to the school, Martis," Severus assured her. "And we'll have the rest of the summer to forget about students, schoolwork, and - "  
  
They paused just before the column. She released his hand and placed it on his cheek, leaning close and touching her lips to his, just brushing against his lips as she spoke. "And just us in the dungeons the whole summer."  
  
He smirked with a flirtatious chuckle. "Whatever shall we do?"  
  
Britomartis pulled away, sliding her sunglasses down to wink at him. "We'll find something."  
  
She backed up and Severus gave her a strong slap against her backend, sending her into a dash through the portal.  
  
Severus Snape grinned, then entered the portal, walking into her arms and into a very passionate kiss on the other side.  
  
"Come on," she breathed. "We'll practice our Tango moves."  
  
-End- 


End file.
